Second Life
by Mindrider
Summary: Elaine Caters was just a normal mortal girl. But what happened when she found out that the life that she was living was not her first? What did she do when she learned that a certain demon wanted her gone and wouldn't stop until she was? T for sad scenes.
1. Chapter 1

**My first fic. Go easy on me please! Feel free to leave constructive criticism in the comments box. Thanks!**

**-Mindrider**

_**Elaine's POV**_

**Slightly More Interesting Then Psychic Octopus's**

The last days of school are always the best.

You know, the days where all you seem to do is sit around chatting with your friends while half watching the world cup. It's such a nice feeling knowing that soon school would be over and you had the entire summer to sit back and hang out by the pool with nothing to worry about but mosquitoes and sunburns, right?

Wrong.

That's what I _thought _my summer was going to be like but sometime in between Germany's loss to Spain and Spain's victory over the Netherlands my life took a turn for (something that I was pretty sure was) the worst.

The month started out normal enough. When we had school we practiced for our graduation, watched more of the world cup, talked a ton, and bored ourselves to death in the classrooms. We had lunch and specials somewhere in between there but not too much else. When we didn't have school we all went crazy and played with our friends, freaking out about the fact that it was summer and that next year we would be going to middle school. I remember a conversation I had with my friend Rachel back when we were still at school.

"Don't you love the end of the year?" I had asked her.

"Sort of." She had responded.

"What do you mean _sort of_? It's awesome!"

"Well yeah," She sighed. "But it only reminds me that I'm not going to be able to see you guys again."

It was true, Rachel was leaving this summer and she wasn't coming back. I found it really dumb considering she had moved here only like halfway through the year, but apparently it was important that she left even though I didn't know why.

"Oh common Rachel, don't let that ruin your fun." I said.

"Yeah I know it's dumb, but you guys are some of the best friends I've ever had." She smiled at me.

"Hehe I know." I said using a nerdy voice.

"I just wish I had found her." She muttered to herself.

"So when are you going to admit that that's not your real hair color?" I asked.

She jumped at my words and stared at me in astonishment. "What?"

I sighed. My other friends and I had been waiting for Rachel to finally tell us this fact. We all knew it, (we could see the red in her roots) but she never mentioned it. "Rachel we all know that your hair isn't naturally brown. We can see the red, we _know_ it's fake."

"No it's not." She said twirling a lock of her shoulder length curly "brown" hair protectively around her finger.

I rolled my eyes and she crossed her arms. "It's really not Elaine, common I-"

"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel." I shook my head sadly. "Tsk tsk, you should know by now that lying gets you nowhere."

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. I laughed. I guess we _weren't_ going to get it out of her.

That day had been fairly ordinary; compared to the ones that followed, _very _ordinary. The last day of school was when the weird things began. It was just before our graduation and we were all in our classrooms preparing to go out in front of the entire school in our pretty little dresses and snazzy suits. The teachers were attaching flowers to our tops and we were all moving around the halls like a bunch of excited bees. My friends and I were having a conversation abut a psychic octopus named Paul when suddenly the room fell silent. Rachel, who was next to me, was the first in our group to look up and what she saw caused her to tense up. I lifted my head and my jaw dropped as a girl who none of us had ever seen before walked into the room. She had on a sleeveless pink dress that went down to about her knees and her curly blonde hair fell in perfect ringlets around her shoulders. Her eyes were the brightest blue and her skin was beautifully tan even though it was just the beginning of summer. She had a good deal of makeup on, much more than any of the other sixth graders had, and she stuck out like a sore thumb.

The most stunning sore thumb anyone's eyes had ever seen.

The guys in sixth grade were still a little young for romance but I doubt that there was one boy in the entire room who wasn't staring at her with big goo goo eyes.

She smiled and the room got about ten times brighter.

"Hi Mrs. Keli." She said to the teacher.

"Who… Who a-a-are y-you?" She stammered.

"I'm Affie Deity your student, remember?" She stared at Mrs. Keli with her huge blue eyes and I saw the confused look on the teacher's face stutter for a moment before it disappeared altogether.

"Oh yes, Affie dear I'm so sorry. You look much different with makeup." She smiled as she attached Affie's flower but I was still confused. Apparently other kids were the same way because a girl named Charlotte tapped her on the shoulder.

"Well _I've _never seen you before."

Affie pouted but for some reason it actually made her look prettier. "Well of course you have. You _all _have, I'm in your class." She looked around the room, scanning the faces one by one.

"Oh yeah!" Said Charlotte. "Now I remember. I'm so sorry I forgot you. Like Mrs. Keli said, you look different with makeup." My other classmates nodded in agreement before turning back to what they where doing. I still stared at her confused. I looked at Rachel to see her reaction. She had an angry expression on her face.

"Rachel do you know-"

She stalked off before I could finish my sentence. I followed her over to Affie.

"What are you doing here?" She asked Affie angrily but quietly. "If it's to give me more impractical riddles then I don't want to hear it."

Affie looked up from the nail she was examining. "Rachel sweetheart that is not the correct tone of voice to use with me."

"I don't care!" Rachel huffed. "Why would you give me such an impossible thing to solve?"

"I wouldn't have given it to you if it were impossible."

"Well I can't figure it out!"

Affie shook her head and gave her the same tsk noise that I had given her a few days ago. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe you just aren't smart enough to figure it out?"

Rachel's face turned red and she fumed. "I am very smart and just because I can't figure out a freaking riddle doesn't mean I'm not." She said through gritted teeth.

Affie sighed. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. But you have to admit, it is taking you an especially long time."

"Well yeah, back to my original point, it's impossible!"

Their arguing continued on and I just stood there watching. I had never met this girl named Affie before. Apparently everyone else had. I wished that someone else was as clueless as I so that I didn't have to go through the embarrassment of having to ask someone to tell me who she was.

Rachel and Affie continued yelling and people were beginning to watch so I tapped them on their shoulders.

"Guys… _Guys… _GUYS!" They looked at me. "Would you quit it?" I said in a hushed tone. "People are staring."

Affie looked at me for a moment before a look of recognition passed over her face. She smiled at me but it was a weird smile. If I hadn't been such a reasonable person I would've said that it looked as though she was smiling at my insides and not my face.

"Why are you staring at my friend like that?" Rachel asked raising an eyebrow.

"Rachel would you like a hint to figure out your riddle?" Affie asked ignoring her question.

"Well, yes. I guess so."

Affie continued smiling at me and I squirmed uncomfortably. "Hey Elaine," she said.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever seen me before in your life?"

I brought my eyes from her excited blue ones to Rachel's confused green ones. "Well, I don't mean this rudely," I began "but I really don't think so. I don't think you've been in our class at all this year." I closed my eyes, waiting for her impact when she hit me or something for not remembering who she was. None came and I opened an eye cautiously. Affie's face was lit up and she was watching Rachel who seemed to be deep in thought.

"_Never seen her before_…" She mumbled to herself. "_Only those who can see through the mist…_" Suddenly Rachel stopped dead. Her eyes widened and she looked at me. I was beginning to get a little freaked out. Rachel continued staring and I was about to ask her what was going on when a huge smile lit up her face.

When I say huge I mean _huge_, like, covers the entire face, huge.

"Laina?" She asked quietly.

I was about to tell her that my name was Elaine and that she had know me all year and shouldn't be acting this way when it hit me.

When she said that name it was as though a thousand thoughts went through my mind in a split second. They were all memories of things that I thought I remembered doing. It was like a dream where you think you did something before you fell asleep, like buy a bag of balloons or something stupid like that, but when you wake up you realize that you actually didn't. But this dream was over in about two seconds. I stumbled forward and Affie caught me by the arms. Her pink nails dug into my skin and I yelped. The entire room looked at me and I'm sure I blushed. Rachel was still staring at me in astonishment and her green eyes were glistening unlike I had ever seen them glisten before.

"It all makes sense now!" She said staring at me the same way that Affie had been doing a few minutes ago that creeped me out.

"What?" I groaned removing Affie's sharp nailed hands from my arms.

"_The missing daughter will soon be found._" Rachel exclaimed excitedly. "_With abilities greater and more profound._ _What didn't strike you before will strike with force._ _And then you'll show off your find on a silver horse_"

Rachel stopped and a confused expression filled her face.

"That will come soon enough." Said Affie. "Continue reciting."

"_She'll bring out the lonesome in a daft old soul. And help bring to life the person burned into coal._"

"Not bad considering I'm no oracle." Said Affie.

"You got both the first line and the last line from my prophecy." Said Rachel crossing her arms. "The only one you actually made up was the middle one."

"Yeah." Said Affie. "I figured it needed three parts so I kind of stole them." She smiled and Rachel smiled back. This day just kept on getting weirder and weirder.

"Will someone please explain what's going on?" I asked pleadingly.

"Oh don't worry." Said Affie. "We will. Just do your graduation and we'll talk afterwards."

"But I can't." I said. "I'm leaving afterwards."

"I didn't mean _right _afterwards." Affie said mischievously.

_What?_

"Ok?' I said, my voice rising up at the end as though it was a question.

So I'll talk to you later!" Said Affie excitedly.

"Definitely." Said Rachel.

Affie smiled at me one more time before skipping happily out the door.

"Wait!" I said.

"What?" Rachel asked

"Isn't she going to stay for graduation?"

"Of course not." Rachel said.

"How come?"

"She's not a student here."

**I hope you enjoyed it! Like I said in the beginning, please comment! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is the second chapter. **

_**Elaine's POV**_

**The Evil Goddess of Flowers**

Graduation was boring. All we did was sit in chairs and watch as other kids in sixth grade got called to the front to get awards. When I was in the lower grades I had always assumed that the assembly wouldn't be as bad when I was actually in it.

Well I was wrong.

The minutes dragged and instead of two hours it felt like six. I was playing rock paper scissors with the kid next to me when the principal finally announced that the assembly was over. I quiet cheer went through the group of students who had been forced to watch, and we, along with the parents, filed out the door. I remember feeling excited that this was summer but also curious about when Affie was going to talk about to me. I got my answer when I was awakened at two a.m. by the prettiest girl in the universe.

"AHH-_MULB_!" I tried to yell in fright but her hand covered my mouth which, yes, resulted in the _'MULB'._

"Shut up! Do you want your parents to hear?"

"Affie?"

"Who else?"

"What are you doing in my room? Wait, actually, how did you even _get _in my room?"

"That's not important at the moment. And I told you that I was going to talk to you later. You didn't think I was kidding did you?"

"To be honest I wasn't sure."

"Come on. I can't talk loud enough here." She grabbed my hand and within the second we were standing in my front yard next to our tree.

"I'm dreaming." I assured myself in a mumble. Well, I tried to. A Japanese beetle thing flew at my face and I attempted to whack it. It was about then that I understood why people are supposed to pinch themselves when testing dreams, not slap.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes Affie I am absolutely one hundred percent fine." I said clutching my stinging cheek.

"Look, I'm not really the most coordinated person in the world either but don't ever recall actually _hitting_ myself."

"It was an accident." I grumbled.

I could've sworn Affie took a half step away from me.

"How did you get me out here so quickly?" I asked sitting down on my swing.

Affie was quiet for a moment, pondering my question. "Well… See I'd like to tell you but I have a feeling you'd call me a nut job and run back into your house."

My eyes widened slightly at this.

"So let me begin to explain this to you." Said Affie.

"Wait." I said holding up my hand.

"Yes." She said with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

"Why isn't Rachel here?"

"I talked to her earlier. She told me that I could start without her."

"You do realize that the only thing keeping me from calling the police on you is the fact that Rachel knows you and doesn't seem to hate you."

"I know." She said cheerfully.

I shook my head to clear the mental cobwebs and then looked at her.

"So what did you want to tell me?"

Affie smiled. "It's going to take a little longer than the time we have here so instead of telling you the entire story I'm going to tell you the gist of it and then send you off on your quest and hope that you begin to understand things a little better while you're on it."

"My quest?"

"Yes, but I'll get to that part later. Let me explain a few things first."

I shrugged. "Alright."

"So it all started a long time ago."

"You sound like you're telling me a fairy tale."

"Oh that's a good idea! I'll tell you this in the form of a fairly tale!"

I rolled my eyes but waited for her to continue.

"Far away and long ago, there was a group of gods that roamed the earth, taking care of the mortals that lived there. There were twelve of them and they each had a specific power. Zeus, for example, had power over the sky, while Hades was the lord of the dead. They had many children. Some were gods like themselves while others were half god and half mortal. One day a baby was found on a tree in Olympus (that's the place where the gods live). The baby was beautiful and caused much happiness throughout the lands. All of the gods wanted this baby. They fought and fought for many years. They caused many violent earthquakes and raging storms to break out throughout the world. The fight went on for many millennia. Eventually the girl was old enough to understand what was going on. The gods were fighting over her and if something didn't happen soon then it would be a huge problem. So she did the only logical thing to do at this point. She contacted a mortal named Sanson U. Rightly who she had talked to before and put her trust in very much. She asked him to chop her up into billions of pieces. Once she was in quantities he was to spread her parts around the world so that it was impossible for the gods to ever form her again. This was what the gods had done to their father Kronos after he tried to eat them."

"Wait." I said shaking my head. "Eat them?"

"Greek mythology is weird. Anyway, Sanson did as she asked and because he was largely into world travel he was able to separate her parts so far apart that the gods had no hope of retrieving her. Unfortunately the gods were not happy about this and killed Sanson but it was for the best.

So here are the gods, heartbroken over the loss of their daughter, grieving and grieving, not paying attention to the mortals, when Apollo comes up with an idea. He suggested that another child be born. This child would not be fought over. Instead she would be shared by all of the gods evenly. This was a very good idea. The only problem was that they had no idea which two gods should be the real parents of the girl. This arose many new arguments that would've gone on much longer than they did if Hermes had not thought of such wonderful proposal. He came up with the idea of having _all _of the gods father and mother the girl. He suggested that every god pour a cup of their golden blood into a human mold. They would each perform a spell and if the spells worked right then this girl would be born as the offspring of each and every one of the gods."

"So that's what they did?"

"Yes. And for a while it worked very well. The girl was born and she became the goddess of mortal accomplishments. She was shared by all of the gods and had very few enemies."

"Very few. That means she still had some?"

"Yes, Persephone. Demeter loved the new goddess much more than Persephone and this made her very very jealous. She hated the young girl and did everything in her power to ruin her life. Unfortunately for Persephone she was a great fighter and she was protected by each and every one of the gods. For a while Persephone feared that she would never be able to get rid of this nuisance.

"But she did?"

"Eventually, yes, she did. The goddess was visiting her father Hades in the underworld. She was playing on the rocks by the Lethe."

"What's the Lethe?"

"It's the body of water where heroes go to get their brains washed so that they can be reincarnated (reincarnated means that their soul is put into another body). So the goddess is playing by the Lethe and Persephone is watching from behind her garden shed. She is about to go work in her garden when an evil idea pops into her head. She picks up a rock from the ground next to her and, with only slight hesitation, throws it at the girl's back. Because Persephone is used to throwing things at Hades when she doesn't get her way she had perfect aim and the stone caught the goddess right in the middle of her back. She lost her balance on the rocks and fell sideways into the Lethe. Her brain was washed as predicted and she was reincarnated by a few careless skeleton workers."

"Wait, so this means that she lost all her powers and was put into the body of a careless mortal?"

"Well, yes and no. Your right that the mortal has no idea that she used to be a goddess but she didn't lose her powers. She still has all of her magic and according to the prophecy much more."

"So what happened next?"

Affie rocked from foot to foot and her face seemed to go a little red.

_Is she embarrassed? _I wondered to myself. She looked up and I was surprised to see that the expression on her face was not embarrassment. In fact, it looked almost guilty.

"Affie." I said trying to get her attention.

"Sorry." She said. "No, not too much happened after that. Only a few things…" Her words turned into mumbles.

"You know what I realized." I said breaking the awkward silence.

"What?" She asked, sounding relieved that I had changed the topic.

"You never told me either girl's name."

"Oh yeah. Well they were both named the same thing."

"And what was that?"

"Laina."

"Wait, but isn't that what Rachel-"

"Called you this morning?" She interrupted. "Yes. Yes it was."

**Please comment!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm going to try the first part of this chapter from Nico's point of view. Tell me in a comment if you like it or not. Elaine's at the bottom but don't skip the Nico. This chapter is important. **

_**Nico's POV**_

**The Dead Lord's Weeps**

The underworld had never felt so dreary.

Of course it was somewhat bleak (it was the underworld) but with my dad so sad and depressed it made everything one hundred times darker. I hated seeing him like this. He was just so… Vulnerable. I was ninety nine percent sure that if we had an invasion I would have to literally carry him to his scythe so that he could give commands to fight them off. Actually, scratch that. _I _would have to go over to the scythe and give the commands to fight them off.

What kind of lord of the dead sits in his throne room weeping simply because his wife left to go to the upper world for a few months? Exactly, I'd like to mention, what she has been doing for the past, like, billon millennia. You would think that the man who has to stay underground for his entire life would get used to the concept of being alone, but no. Instead I'm forced to listen to his weeps and cries all through my day.

Thanks a million father.

To give you an idea of how much this whole lonesome thing was effecting my brain I'll tell you something that if you dare tell anyone else than I will gladly get my skeleton servant Ronald to come and eat your brains out. (Side note; that's actually a stereotype. Neither skeletons nor zombies enjoy the taste of brains. Much too gooey. Well I'll get him to bash you to pieces, how about that?)

I'm actually _wishing _that Persephone would come back. That's right, _wishing_. It takes something pretty terrible for me to actually _wish _for my evil stepmother. Not to mention her mom. Cereal was bad enough, now Demeter's trying to enforce _corn._ Corn! Just because she's the goddess of the harvest doesn't mean we literally have to eat the things from the harvest! I would much rather have bananas. I cannot believe that I ever _lived_ without bananas. Those things are so good…

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.

"Who is it?"

"_Click click click_."

"Come on in Ronald."

The door creaked open and my skeleton warrior stepped inside, his bones ticking in rhythm.

"_Clickety clack click_."

"Of course he's weeping. He has been for days."

"_Clack click clickety_."

"No I am not coming up to comfort him again. I am sick and tired of it."

"_Clack click clickety_!"

"No! He should suck it up!"

"_CLACK CLICK CLICKETY_!"

"Argh! Fine I'll go!"

I swung my legs off my bed and followed Ronald down the hall.

The walls in my father's castle are pretty cool. They're black and grey and are decorated with images of skulls and axes. Three doors are branched off of the hall. One is mine, the other is my father's, and the last one is Persephone's. At the end off the hall is a staircase that leads down to our kitchen, dining area, spare bedroom, and office. There is only one bathroom upstairs next to my bedroom and another downstairs merely for show (not counting the little ditch for skeletons and demons). Ronald walked off towards the ditch and I yanked on the unsuspicious attic cord that pulled out a staircase that led up to my father's throne room. I could hear the wailing before I even had the door open. Wonderful, another day of worthless comforting. I climbed up and prepared myself for the annoyance of an emotionally depressed god.

The throne room is actually pretty awesome.

It's got six huge thrones inside modeled after the ones on Olympus. The biggest one is for Hades and it's got real bones making up the frame (we kind of had to sacrifice Ronald's cousin Clide). The second is Persephone's and it's got a bunch of flowers and grass on the sides that makes me want to gag. The Third is Demeter's and it changes every now and then. Today it was made up completely of cereal boxes. I was surprised that she hadn't already changed it to corn husks.

The fourth one is mine. It is a metal chair with a picture of a skull and crossbones on the backrest. It is not the most comfortable thing in the world but oh well. The fifth was my sister Bianca's. It was designed by Persephone so it was all pretty and flowery. I knew that if Bianca had ever seen it then she would have wrinkled her nose in disgust. The sixth and final throne was my mother Maria's. It is obviously the most worked on of them all. It's made up of beautiful red roses that had the thorns clipped. The stems were woven together so thick that you could actually sit on it without falling through. My father was sitting on it backwards and was leaning his head against it mournfully. His cries were ever so slightly muffled by the roses but otherwise they echoed around the small chamber.

"Father." I said quietly.

Hades' cries softened and he looked up, his puffy red face looking weird against his jet black eyes. "Nico, my son." He said quietly.

"Ronald informed me of your grief."

"And so he did. I am terribly sorry to put you through this Nico." His voice was the softest I had ever heard it. For once it seemed like he actually felt bad for all he had done. The fact that my tough father, Mr. Lord of the dead, was becoming a softie caused my eyes to tear up which of course caused the black eyeliner that he had given me a few months ago to drip down my cheek. I'm sure my dad was about to say something like an apology but I started before he could.

"I thought you missed Persephone not my mother." I motioned to the throne he was sitting on. I didn't know why but the fact that he was sitting on my mothers throne when he had gotten her killed just made me angry.

Hades caught his breath. "Oh of course I miss Maria, Nico, how could I not. She was and still is the most important mortal in my life."

My blood boiled at his lie. I clenched my teeth and glared at him.

"If she really were then you would have at least tried to save her."

"Nico I did, you don't understand."

"I understand enough to know that you let Zeus kill her." My fingers turned into fists.

This caused a new flow of tears to fall down my father's cheeks. He got up off her throne and did something that I had never seen him do to anyone but Persephone. He gave me a hug.

It caught me by surprise and I stiffened a little bit. Gods were not known to hug people. Especially not gods of the dead.

He rubbed my back silently.

"Nico I loved more mother more than anything. She was everything to me. When I saw her I forgot that I was married and longed to be with her forever. I would have done _anything _to save her, and now, I would do _anything _to have her back."

"Anything?" I asked in a whisper.

"Anything." He promised.

"Like, beg your brother, anything?"

I heard him take a sharp intake of breath and he pulled away. "What do you mean?"

"Lord Zeus." I began. "I bet you anything that if you go up to Olympus, get on your knees, and beg him, then he will let you break the rules and bring her back to life."

"But…" he shook his head. "That's crazy! I would never-"

I allowed a few tears to fall down my face.

"Nico I-"

"You said you would do _anything_!" I choked out.

"Well, I didn't mean-"

"I get it!" I cried loudly. "You didn't mean that you actually would!" I yelled the words at his face before turning off in a huff and running downstairs. Ronald was waiting for me. I stormed past him towards my room. When I got there I slammed my door shut and turned on a lamp to create a shadow. I concentrated hard on Thalia's pine at the top of camp half blood before jumping into it. The last thing I remember was hearing my father's roar of anger and feeling the ground shake as his black scythe was thrown against the floor.

_**Elaine's POV**_

It took a moment or two before Affie's words sunk in.

"Wait, you're not seriously saying-"

"Look Lain." Affie said. "I know this is really really hard to believe, and I know you think I'm crazy and mental and everything else but will you please listen to me."

I nodded, still in shock.

"Did Rachel ever ask you if you've read the Percy Jackson series?"

I thought for I second. I vaguely remembered her asking once, like, the day she came. "Yeah, I think so. I haven't. Read it I mean."

Affie reached into her bag and pulled out five books. "Read these." She said. "When you are finished I want you to meet me at this nail spa." She handed me the books along with a slip of paper with the name of a spa written on it.

"But what if you're not there?"

Affie examined her pink nails with a look of disgust. "Don't worry I'll be there." She smiled at me one last time before grabbing my hand. The next second we were in my room again. I rubbed my eyes and once again tried to assure myself I was dreaming. Affie shook her head.

"Eventually you will get used to this." She smiled one last time before disappearing.

I was pretty tired. It was about three a.m. by this point and I was so sleepy I thought I had hallucinated half of our conversation. I was too drowsy to think too much about what had just happened; most of it seemed like a blur. Eventually, after several failed attempts at concentrating, I let my brain take over. Within the next minute I was asleep.

**I know Elaine's short. I had Nico in the beginning so I figured I could afford a smaller one. Did you like Nico? Did the action happen too fast? Send me a comment. Remember, I will put more chapters up sooner if I get comments.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Longest chapter!**

**Here is Elaine and after her will be Nico. Seriously guys, please review. I don't know if I'm doing well or not, I sort of have to take my friends' words. I would appreciate it and it doesn't even have to be more than a sentence. It would just be nice to know if there is anything I can improve on.**

**And no, I don't own Percy Jackson. I figured I should probably put it in there so that I don't run the risk of being sued.**

_**Elaine's POV**_

**The Truth Over Ice Cream**

Gods those books were good.

I mean like, crazy good, like, finish the entire series in a week good. I couldn't believe that I spent my entire life around them but never even read them. I adored Argus. He was definitely the best character. What sort of person doesn't like a hundred eyed security guard?

Though Argus was definitely my favorite, Nico came in a close second. I loved his personality. It was so… Menacing? Ominous? No, the correct word is changeable. I mean, in the first book he's this goofy kid who annoys Percy to no end, and by the last one he's this intimidating teen who everyone thinks is Goth. It's crazy how he changed over the story.

If there had to be one thing I didn't like about him it was that he didn't turn back into the goofy guy at the end. If I were Rick Riordan then I would've given him back his craziness so that he didn't seem so depressed. But oh well! He was still my second favorite!

I hadn't seen Rachel at all over summer break and I decided that if I was going to meet Affie then I wanted Rachel right next to me the entire time (I still wasn't positive that Affie wasn't a criminal after she got into my house like that). So I called Rachel up one Saturday and we convinced my mom to let us hang out alone at the mall. I began to tell Rachel the story the second we set foot out of the car. She listened intently. Most of the time she seemed like she already knew the whole thing but every now and then she would say something like 'Really?' or 'Oh my gosh you're kidding!' It was a lot of fun and by the time we got to the nail salon we were both laughing so hard we were snorting.

The name of the spa was 'Nancy's Nail Palace' and the second Rachel and I caught sight of it we looked at each other in disgust. Neither of us was really a large fan of girly girl stuff and the store looked like the sort of place where skinny females with too much makeup and way too short tank tops thrived.

Regardless of our nervousness we walked into the store. We had only taken about three steps when brunette woman with globs of makeup and a red tank top (told you so) stepped in front of us.

"And how can I help you ladies?" She asked smiling.

We looked up and her and were surprised to find that she towered over us like a giant.

"We're looking for our friend ma'm. Perhaps you've seen her. Her name is Affie. Affie Deity."

The woman's face lit up. "Oh you're Affie's friends? Right this way!" She led us over to Affie who was sitting in one of those salon chairs chit chatting with the blonde woman painting her nails a vibrant blue.

"And then she was like, 'but I don't love green tea. In fact, I hate all tea in general! And then I - Oh Lian, Rach, you're here!"

The blonde woman looked up and smiled at us. "Would you two like a manicure as well? I would be happy to-"

"No thanks." Rachel said quickly before she could finish her sentence.

The woman pouted a little bit before turning back to Affie. "What were you saying dear?"

"Actually I kind of have to go." She got up from the chair and the woman glared at us as though it was our fault her source of entertainment was leaving.

"Well thanks for coming! I hope you have a nice day!" She smiled at Affie and they air kissed.

Rachel made a face and I pretended to itch my upper lip to keep from laughing.

We walked out of the store and the second we were completely clear of it Rachel and I both sighed huge sighs of relief.

"Oh common! You guys are such wimps." Affie complained laughing.

"I don't know how you can stand it in there." Rachel said wide eyed. "It's my worst nightmare."

"It is pretty bad." I admitted.

Affie rolled her eyes and examined her newly blue nails. "Well I _love _it in there."

We walked for a few moments quietly.

"So when are you going to finish our old conversation?" I asked breaking the silence.

"Well," began Affie. "Why don't we try that Ben and Jerry's over there?" She asked pointing to the multicolored store to our right.

"Finally, you start to sound like me." Rachel said. She made a beeline for the shop and we laughed.

We ordered our ice cream quickly. Rachel got a chocolate cone with sprinkles, me a chocolate shake, and Affie some weird low fat coconut thing in a cup. We sat down at a table in the corner and almost immediately Affie started talking.

"So you finished the books."

"Yes." I said. "They were amazing! I love Argus and Nico and Tyson! And Annabeth and Percy are adorable. They are the best books in the world. Thanks so much for giving them to me!"

"No problem!" Said Affie cheerfully. "It only makes our job easier."

"What job?" I asked taking a sip of my shake.

"Explaining things to you." Rachel said simply. "You'll be more likely to _want _to believe us after reading those things." She motioned to the girl at the table behind us who was holding a worn copy of The Lightning Thief.

"So what is it that you need to explain to me anyway?"

Rachel bit a chunk off of her cone. "Well it sounds like Affie did a good deal of it already. The question is if you will be able to put two and two together and figure this out before we tell you."

I groaned and tapped my foot impatiently. "Really you guys? I hate not knowing things and in case you don't know, I'm terrible at figuring things out."

"It's true." Sighed Rachel. "We did riddles during recess once; she didn't understand the banana joke."

"What's a banana joke?" Asked Affie.

"You know, the one where you say banana a bunch of times and then say 'orange you glad I didn't say banana?'."

Affie looked at her with a confused expression. "What?"

"Never mind."

"Please tell me what's going on!" I begged.

Affie sighed. "Tell her your prophecy. Maybe she'll understand things better when she hears it."

"I doubt it." Rachel mumbled. But she started anyway.

"_The missing daughter will soon be found,_

_With abilities greater and more profound._

_She'll see the lonesome in a daft old soul,_

_And help bring life to the person burned into coal._

_The old acquaintance will admit his wrong,_

_And the light will change during the skeleton's song._

_The trusted one, evil in the end,_

_Will bring a terrible fate to a, once called, friend._

_The daughter will do what's been done before,_

_To postpone, not end, a terrible war."_

"Wow." I breathed.

"I know." Affie sighed.

"It is one of my longest." Rachel said proudly

I looked at Rachel. "Well on the bright side I think I've figured out who you are."

_**Nico's POV**_

I materialized in front of the large pine that used to be my good friend Thalia. That probably sounds a little weird but it's true. When she was on the verge of death her daddy lord Zeus decided to be nice and turned her into a tree. Granted, that might not sound so nice to you but it's definitely better than going down to meet my dad, especially nowadays. I swear you can hear his weeps all the way from Elysium.

So here I am in front of the tree. I stroked Peleus, the green scaled dragon that we trained to guard it in case some other thing decides to come and steal our fleece (the magical item which keeps the tree healthy). In case it hasn't accord to your puny non magical minds, the tree is kind of important. It keeps demons and other gross things like mortals out of our camp. I can just imagine what all my old classmates would say if they saw the camp:

"Dude! Is that like a rock wall with lava coming down it? Can I go climb it and get pictures from the top?"

"Whoa! Is that a sword fighting arena? Can you show me how you do it so that I can become a master in like an hour?"

"Oh my gosh is that a unicorn? Where is it's horn and why is it flying?"

"Holy cow are those your bathrooms? Can I go in there and lick the ground so that maybe a small bit of demigod DNA will get inside me and I'll be magical!"

(Okay, maybe not the last one, but mortals can think of some pretty ridiculous things)

The camp hadn't changed too much from the last time I had seen it. It was only a few months after the whole Titan war and surprisingly most things went right back to normal. I guess when you're a half blood you get used to the concept of terrible and crazy events happening to you every day. The shadow of the new great prophecy still loomed over us all but other than that everything was normal… A bit too normal for our liking.

I walked down half blood hill over to the big house where our camp director Dionysus was drinking a Sprite with a grossed out expression on his face.

"Uhh Mr. D. Everything alright?" I asked looking at his pudgy face questionably.

He opened his eyes and his iris's glowed an angry looking purple. "I'm fine Nick."

"It's Nico."

"Do I look like I care?"

"Not really." I mumbled. "Why are you drinking that Sprite if you don't even look like you like it?"

He sighed sadly. "That Stoll boy doesn't think I can drink anything but diet coke and wine. I decided to prove him wrong and he gave me some of his Sprites." He made a face. "I don't know how you brats stand this stuff. It's worse than Pegasus water." He took another sip and his roundish face turned red. "Ugh! So disgusting."

He tossed the half empty drink into a trash bin on the big house's porch. "I give up." He turned to walk off.

"Wait!"

"What?" He asked.

"Where's Chiron?"

"In the attic. He's working on some magical item or another. Don't ask me why." He turned again.

"Wait!" I said again.

"What?" He asked angrily.

"Can I have one of your sprites?"

"Be my guest."

"Thanks." I said reaching for one out of five sodas left on the table. Dionysus dismissed me with a wave of his hand.

I walked into the big house with the Sprite in my hand. I didn't want to open it inside in case it was a prank or something and it was going to spray me (though shaking soda cans is a little low for Connor and Travis) so I stuck it in one of my pockets. I knew my way through the big house, it wasn't very complicated, so I made it to the attic door in no time. Just being that close to the attic made me nauseous. I knew the Oracle of Delphi didn't live up there anymore but I remembered enough of her creepiness to be slightly timid as I walked up the stairs that had already been pulled down from the ceiling by Chiron. I began to climb, each step creaking loudly, causing goose bumps to pop up on my arms and legs. When I got to the top, sure enough the activities director was standing there in horse form with his bum to me, leaning over some sort of shirt. Yes, I said horse form. Chiron is a centaur who helps our swording instructor Jack train us for battle. He can put his lower body into a wheelchair when he wants to but around camp he usually goes without it.

He was dusting the fabric of the shirt with one of those feather duster things and was mumbling to himself quietly in Greek. He was so caught up in his work he didn't notice me even when I cleared my throat.

"Chiron." I said.

He ignored me and continued his mumbling.

"Chiron!"

He looked up abruptly and his hands immediately went to the shirt as if he were trying to protect it.

"Gods it's just me."

He recognized who I was and relief flushed through his face. "My goodness Nico, you scared me."

"Sorry."

"It's alright. What are you doing up here? How did you know where I was?"

"Dionysus told me. I was looking for you."

"Well what do you need?"

"Well I was just wondering if I could stay at camp for a little while. The underworld is getting annoying because my father is really depressed."

"Of course you can stay. Is that all?"

"I was also wondering what that shirt thing is."

"Oh." He said dolefully scratching his short brown beard.

"Well…" I urged him.

He deliberated for a moment or two but eventually began, knowing that I wasn't going to leave without an answer, which was true. "It's a magical shirt." He began in a hushed voice. "Whoever puts it on can make themselves look and sound like anybody in the world."

"So if I put it on I could make myself look exactly like you?"

"Exactly."

I took a moment to think about all the amazing pranks I could come up with using just that one shirt.

"So why aren't you showing it to anyone?"

"Well," He said. "It's very powerful, I mean, think about all the schemes that the Hermes children could come up with if they only had it.

Not just the Hermes Cabin.

"Yeah I see your point." I said.

"So please don't tell anyone. I'd rather keep it hidden until we absolutely have to use it."

"Don't worry, I won't. So you haven't told anyone but me?"

"Well you and Dionysus but I doubt he even remembers."

"Yeah, him and his three second memory."

Chiron smiled. "Now don't go insulting him. He may be a little odd in the head but he is still your camp director."

"In other words you don't want to get him mad by agreeing with me and end up getting turned into a dolphin."

Chiron laughed and shook his head but winked at me as I stepped back down the ladder. When I was back outside I sat down on the porch steps and fiddled with the cap on my soda. I wondered why Chiron even bothered to try to convince me Mr. D was smart. He did so many weird things. He's the easiest person to prank and he's so bad at figuring things out it's almost not funny. Percy had told me a few stories about some smart things he had done. He explained the time that Dionysus let him go when he caught him flying after Zoe Nightshade and everyone else on Blackjack. I guess that was pretty smart, perhaps he wasn't as absentminded as I thought.

I finally got the Sprite open and put it to my lips to take a sip.

I spit it out the second it touched my taste buds.

It was definitely not Sprite but it was a few moments before I finally placed the taste.

"Pegasus water." I sighed.

**That's all for now. Like I said in the beginning, please review! I would like to know what people think of my writing considering this is my first time actually sharing. Well for real anyway. School doesn't count. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

**This next chapter is the last action-less chapter. Soon the two main characters will meet and Laina will be sent out on the quest Affie promised. By the way! Thank you to Alabama1998 for being my first reviewer! It's good to know that there is at least someone in this world who isn't heartless (and yes, I am trying to guilt you guys into reviewing). Just kidding! By the way, for those of you Justin Bieber fans, I have nothing against the guy personally but I figured I might as well add a little humor. Read this next chapter to see what I'm talking about…**

_**Laina's POV**_

**I am Terrified by a Glittery Mammal**

"Well I guess that's what we were going for." Said Rachel.

I looked at her and for the first time I really studied her. She had the green eyes of Rachel Dare but her hair was brown. I thought for a second before a smile lit up my face. "I knew that it was actually red!"

Rachel was confused for a moment before she laughed and brought her hand to her head. "Yeah, I couldn't tell you that you were right or someone who has read the book might figure out who I really am. I mean, my last name was technically Zaire."

"You had to change it so that people didn't get suspicious?"

"Yes. It was really annoying because whenever I heard someone talking about truth or dare I always looked up. I had to pretend I just loved the game!"

"Ha!" I laughed. "I remember you saying that before." I continued examining her and the doodled on jeans with the red Nike sweat jacket proved the theory. I turned my attention to Affie.

"So who are you?"

Rachel brought her head down to the table and it hit it with a thunk.

"What?" I asked.

Rachel lifted her head. "You didn't just seriously ask that, did you?"

My face turned red. "Yes I did. Why?"

Rachel's head fell back down again and Affie looked at me sympathetically.

"You are very terrible at figuring things out." She said.

"Well gee thanks. Will you _please _tell me who you are?" I begged.

"Here's a hint." She said brushing her hair behind her shoulders as if getting into character. "Not knowing is half the fun! Exquisitely painful, isn't it? Not being sure who you love and who loves you? Oh, you kids! It's so cute I'm going to cry!" She stopped her overdramatic acting and looked at me. "Have you figured it out yet?"

I recognized the lines from somewhere but I couldn't place where. I had a feeling they were from the Olympians but I had no clue which character said it. I thought about what she had said. Something about love and how you had no idea about who you love and who is in love with you? I couldn't remember. "Give me another hint." I said.

Rachel brought her head down hard on the table again and the store manager looked at her oddly. "Affie Deity is her name, Laina. You _have _to be able to figure this out. Even a _kindergartener _could figure this out."

"Hey!" I protested.

"It's kind of true." Said Affie. "You're thinking too hard."

I took a deep breath before looking over at Affie, thinking hard about who she could be. I knew the answer was really obvious but it was just hard for me.  
_Affie Deity… Affrie Deity… Afro Deity… Aphrodite!_

It hit me hard and I fell off my chair. This time the store manager got up and came to see if I was okay. I waved him off and has soon as he was gone I whispered loudly to Affie, "You're Aphrodite?"

"Shhh!" Said Rachel. "Announce it to the whole world, why don't you?"

Affie - er, Aphrodite – just laughed and snapped her fingers. Her image suddenly changed and I was staring into the face of a stunning woman in a fancy red dress rather than a beautiful teenaged girl with skinny jeans and a tank top. I almost fell backwards off my chair. Rachel grabbed me just in time and I was saved from yet another embarrassing fall.

"You aren't really… But that's crazy… Oh my gosh it makes perfect sense." I stared at the beautiful woman with wide eyes. Her hair had become a long silky black and her lips had turned bright red. Come to think of it, this actually sounds somewhat like Katy Perry. But she didn't look like Katy Perry. Her eyes were a deep gold and she had no bangs. She had on a large crimson colored ring with a jewel the size of a chocolate truffle. Her nails were now painted bright red and they were as long as those of the waitresses you see in old diners. She smiled and the light from the dinky lamp hanging above our heads reflected off her teeth making them light up. All heads turned towards her and everyone gasped as soon as they caught sight of her. She sat back casually, obviously enjoying the attention, and Rachel groaned.

"Really?" She whispered. "Now we will _never _get a chance to talk to her alone."

Aphrodite rolled her eyes and when they came back out of her head they were a chocolaty brown. "Come on Dare. Let's find that silver horse from your riddle." She got up off her seat and walked over to the exit without pushing her chair in. "Chair." She said on her way out.

About a million hands all moved to the chair and tried to push it in.

Rachel snorted and rolled her eyes. I was still staring at my old teenaged friend Affie in awe.

We followed her quickly out to the parking lot, not enjoying being the center of attention at all. Aphrodite walked calmly and evenly around the mall, knowing exactly where to go as if this place were her house. She waved to people in stores we passed and they waved back, all calling out the name 'Diana' for some reason. We exited the mall and made our way to the back where only law breaking teenagers and men escaping their shopaholic wives resorted to. Affie eventually stopped and we caught up. For a girly woman in four inch heels she was fast.  
Rachel and I sat on the curb and tried to catch our breath. This was the old parking lot for the restaurant across the street from the mall. They had made the new one when I was like five or so, so I had never been here before. No cars really came and we were all alone.

Well, almost all alone.

About fifteen feet away from us was a freakishly large horse that was spray painted silver.

As soon as I caught sight of the poor mammal I screamed bloody murder and tried to run away. Rachel grabbed the back of my shirt with a sigh and I did that thing that cartoons characters do in T.V. shows where they think they are still running when they are actually staying in the same place moving absolutely nowhere. I stopped struggling and Rachel eventually loosened her grip on my shirt.

'What is that thing?" I asked as soon as I had caught my breath.

"_What didn't strike you before will strike with force._ _And then you'll show off your find on a silver horse._"Said Rachel with a bored voice.

"What?" I asked.

"My riddle." Said Aphrodite.

I faintly remembered Rachel repeating something like that back at school. "Well why is the thing here?" I asked, still majorly confused.

"To take _you two _to camp." Aphrodite said cheerfully.

"Camp… As in Camp Half Blood?"

"Yes!" She said walking over to the glistening horse. "Come on guys, get on him. Starfly won't bite. Isn't that right boy?" She said stroking Starfly's mane.

I shook my head and then looked at the horse again. His big brown eyes were staring at me expectantly as if begging me to take him for a ride. Rachel got off of the curb and hoisted herself up onto the front of his back. She motioned for me to come but I just stood there. No way was I getting on a mysterious horse in the middle of a vacant parking lot.

Aphrodite sighed and came over to me. "Come on Laina, aren't you coming?"

I shook my head no. She crossed her arms.

"Seriously Lain, we are going to be late. Eventually my force field will lose its power."

"What?"

"My force field. I'm holding one up now. I've been holding one for the past few weeks."

"Why?" I asked delaying the torture for as long as I could.

"Reasons. Now get on the horse."

"No."

See, I had never really liked horses too much. I tried riding one with my family in Maryland once but because of my luck I just so happened to get the crazy one that misbehaved and scared me half to death. I hated that experience and have been scared of horses ever since. To state the obvious; it was doubtful that anyone would be able to get me onto that thing.

I put my hands on my hips stubbornly and tapped my foot. Affie frowned back at me. She seemed to be in deep thought, probably trying to think of ways to get me on the thing, when suddenly her face lit up.

"You asked why I am putting up a force field, right?"

I looked at her excited face and decided to answer cautiously. "Yes… Why?"

"Well that's a simple question really." She said smiling, positive that she had won. "I'm putting up the force field to protect you from demons."

"Demons?" I asked casually, trying not to show my fear.

"Demons." She assured me.

"What sorts of demons?" I asked looking up at the sky as if I just wanted to reassure myself that it was still blue when really I was trying to make sure that she didn't see how far ahead in our game she was.

"Oh many types." She said nodding. "In fact, Chiron just recently found this new type of demon that is very very dangerous."

"How dangerous?" I asked, looking down at the ground. You know, it might have turned purple.

"My gosh Laina. They are the worst. They're the children of both the Sirens and Apollo."

"Sirens, you mean the bird ladies?"

"Yes."

"Well what do they do to you?"

"Well they sing. They captivate you much like their mothers and sing to you. The only difference is that they don't sing your biggest dreams."

"Well what do they sing? Your worst nightmares?"

"Worse." Said Aphrodite.

My heart leapt into my throat. "Well then what do they sing?" I asked in a whisper.

She looked at me and for once her face looked dead serious. "Justin Bieber songs." She whispered back.

Oh. My. God.

I let a small whimper escape my throat before I took off in the direction of the horse. I was at it, climbing it, and on it, all in the same second. I yelled the word, 'mush!' in hope that Starfly responded to husky demands. Of course he didn't.

"How do get this thing to move?" I yelled.

Rachel laughed and shouted a word in Greek that sounded like '_clowel_' and Starfly took off.

For some eerie reason I knew that _'clowel'_ meant _'go'_.

At first I was wondering how we were going to get to Long Island on a mere horse. But then I remembered that this was Percy Jackson. So naturally, the thing sprouted wings.

Starfly the Pegasus took off in the air and we soared over the buildings. The wind lashed at my hair and the tendrils turned to whips. My shirt was plastered against my stomach and my little purse was flying out behind me. A quarter fell out and I pitied anybody below me. We swooped low and then high and caused littered papers to fly around the streets. I was about to ask Rachel why the mortals weren't looking at us and calling the police when I remembered that this mist kept them from seeing the truth.

Starfly swooped high and I shivered. I didn't recall it mentioning in Percy Jackson how cold it is to be flying so high without a jacket. Rachel must have observed this too because she yelled_ 'Famylaughtyhous'_ which surprisingly means only_ 'lower_'. But Starfly sunk and I was grateful for their odd choice of vocabulary. We continued flying and my mind began to wander.

_Gosh I'm hungry. We should've gone to a restaurant when we were at the mall. I've only had half of a milkshake since breakfast and I can hear my stomach rumbling even through the whooshing air. Oh wait, I couldn't have gone to a restaurant anyway. I have two dollars and Rachel only has one and a half. Oh well, I guess I could've asked mom for a few bucks when she got to the mall at twelve. But that's still a while from now so I would still be hungry anyway. Oh wait, what time is it now?_

I looked down at my wrist and examined it for a few moments before it finally made it into my head that I didn't have a watch on. Whoops?

I looked over at Rachel and I determined that she also did not have a watch.

_Oh well. I'm sure it's not twelve yet. I'll just ask Rachel to make sure that we make it back to the mall before she gets there._

I shrugged my shoulders and hummed 'This Afternoon' by Nickleback while I waited for us to reach our destination. Eventually a big hill came into view in the distance. Rachel straightened up and I could see the huge smile on her face as she looked at it. I squinted at the hill and turned my head to the side. After a few failed attempts I was finally able to make out the silhouettes of the things that I knew were there. Peleus the dragon was on the hill guarding a large pine tree with something sparkly in it and I could see houses just past the tree down the other side of the hill. As we got closer the faint smell of strawberries tickled my nose and I smiled as a faint sense of déjà vu filled my head.

**Thank you all for reading! Alright, I have an idea. Because I am tired of having to ask my friends to tell me if this is any good because certain people are too lazy to review I am going to come up with a code. If my story is good and you have really nothing to say about it then send me a review with the letters SIG (story is good). If it has something that you don't like (other then the fact that I often spell come on, common) then write the letters SIN (some improvement needed). And preferably, after the SIN write why. This way it only takes a few seconds and I don't need to keep pestering you all about reviewing, because I know from other fanfics that when the author does that it gets really annoying. And yes, I am being a hypocrite at the moment. So pretty pretty please do it. It would make me happy c( :**


	6. Chapter 6

**Alright, I lied about the last one being the last action-less chapter. This one really is.  
I know I said this in my profile but I was just wondering if someone could tell me what a Mary-Sue character is. I'm new to fanfiction and I've heard it a lot so I was just wondering what it meant. I would appreciate it, thanks. I'll try to write the next chapter as soon as I can but for now here is Nico.**

_**Nico's POV**_

**The Best way to Greet Friends is to Tell Them Goodbye**

To my surprise, when I walked over towards the cabins I had a large gathering of people there waiting for me. The first person was Percy. He had on his regular camp half blood T-shirt and shorts and was holding his girlfriend Annabeth's hand. His dark brown shaggy hair was covering the tops of his green eyes and his smile seemed like the biggest thing on his face.

Annabeth was also smiling but not as big. Her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail behind her head so her grey eyes stood out almost as largely as Percy's smile. She too had on her camp T-shirt and shorts.

Next to them was Chris Rodriguez who had his arm around his girlfriend Clarisse. He had very tanned skin and his brown hair looked to be almost the same shade. His eyes were a coconutty brown and his bangs just so slightly grazed the tops of them. He was more of the shyer sort so his smile didn't even show teeth, but I knew he was happy I was back.

Clarisse, on the other hand, looked to be the opposite of Chris. Her dark brown eyes shined eagerly as she waited for me to get close enough for her to grab me and pull me into a hug that sends the wind out of me faster then I can respond to what's going on. Her shoulder length brown hair was stringy and sweaty considering she didn't own even one ponytail. Her tight red shirt with the brown dracaena skinned vest on over it showed off her muscles and made her look even more like an Ares camper. She had a few temporary tattoos on her arms and as I got closer I realized that they showed pictures of various demons with swords through their middles. Wonderful.

The last two campers were the familiar Stoll brothers. Travis was closer to me and his light, curly brown hair was one of the first things I noticed about him. He was pretty tall and I only came up to his nose. His smile was crooked so it looked almost sarcastic and his bluish hazelish eyes were bright and happy.

Travis's brother Connor was behind him and if you had just seen them both together on the street you would have assumed they were twins. They both had the same curly hair and mischievous eyebrows. He was only slightly shorter and younger and his hair was just barely straighter. He was turned the other way and was talking to someone so I couldn't see his face. Both twins had on their camp shirts and shorts so I had trouble telling them apart. I walked over to everyone and they all ran over to hug me. Clarisse got there first so closed my eyes and I prepared myself to be squeezed to death, but to my surprise she barely touched me and the only evidence that she had actually been there were the pieces of balloon stuck in my hair and the fact that I was soaking wet.

I groaned and opened my eyes to see a cheerful looking Clarisse standing there looking pretty proud of herself. I sighed as she engulfed me into that hug I knew she had been waiting to use on me. When she pulled away I had barely enough time to get my air back before everyone else piled on top of me and I felt like some sort of celebrity. Eventually I was free and I sat on the ground breathing hard, trying to get my lungs working again. Everyone was bombarding me with questions and I was doing everything in my power to tune them out. Eventually Chris got tired of me ignoring them so he grabbed my upper arms and pulled me to my feet.

"What have you been doing for the past three months Nico?"

"Why did you leave the day after the titan war?"

"Don't you know how worried we were?"

"Why didn't you tell us you were leaving?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

"WHY?"

I let out an aggravated growl and their questions stopped.

"Can't you give me a minute?" I shouted. "I've been in the underworld these past few months. I left because I wanted to see my father. I know you were worried but I needed to go help him. I didn't tell you I was leaving because I knew you would try to get me to stay. Now may I _please_ go to my cabin and take a nap. My dads' crying has kept me up all night."

They closed their mouths and stared at me with looks of surprise on their faces. I guess they hadn't expected my outburst.

"O... Okay Nico." Said Annabeth cautiously. "We'll talk to you later tonight."

"Thank you." I said turning to the direction of my cabin. The group was silent. I could feel the eyes on my back the entire time I walked. As I approached my cabin I felt a stream of guilt go through me but I shook it off. I was tired. Obviously I would be a little grouchy.

I approached my cabin and I smiled as the familiar sight calmed me down. My cabin was like my Hades' Palace. It was huge and black and had lanterns on the front. On the door there was a picture of a smiling skull and it usually kept most visitors away. But to my surprise there was a woman in a red dress standing on my porch. She seemed to be waiting for me, for her arms were crossed and her foot was tapping. I didn't recall ever seeing her in my life but then again, I could barely think because as I got closer I realized that this woman was… Well a lot of words could describe her. She was tall, serious, impatient, girly- But I think the best word to use would have to be beautiful. She had long silky black hair that went down to about mid-back. Her eyes were a stunning blue and they were almost as fierce as Thalia's. Her lips were a bright red and they were set in a disapproving frown. Her red dress went down to about her knees and it seemed very fancy for a summer camp.

_Why is she at my cabin? _I wondered. _She looks as if she thinks she owns the place. Yeah, well it's mine. And that's exactly what I'm going to tell her._

I straightened up and walked over to her with a look of confidence. I got to my cabin and was about to give her a piece of my mind when she looked at me.

Her blue eyes had changed to green and they were the prettiest things the world has ever seen. She smiled at me and I forgot every intention I had ever had in my life. She smiled and I gulped.

"Hello Nico!" She said cheerfully.

_How does she know my name?_

"Uhhh…" I trailed off and it occurred to me afterward how stupid I sounded. I blushed and she just laughed.

"I will never get over how cute you male demigods are." She said happily.

I just sort of stood there.

"So anyway," she began. "You know I am here for a reason, right?"

"Yeh." I managed to choke out.

"So let me explain this to you. There is a new magical being and she needs help. All of her powers are gone and she needs to gain them back."

I gathered my thoughts quickly and pieced together a few syllables so that I could respond. "A demigod lost their powers?"

"Well no." She responded. "Not a demigod. She's an old goddess. Did Chiron ever tell you about Laina?"

The name rung a bell in my mind and I faintly remembered a lesson about her.

"She's the goddess that all the gods fought over, right? The one who ended up cutting herself into pieces like Kronos."

"Yes." She responded. "Now do you remember learning about the second Liana?"

I thought about it. "Wasn't she the one who fell into the Lethe?"

"Yes!" The woman said excitedly.

"She's not the one that needs help is she? She's gone."

She shook her head. "She was never gone. She was just born by two mortals. We found her and now we need to get all of her abilities back. My theory is that she will have more power now that she's half mortal."

"Wait." Said a voice behind me. Percy stepped out from beside my cabin.

"Percy!" I groaned.

He ignored me and looked at the woman. "_The missing daughter will soon be found, with abilities greater and more profound._ That's not Laina, is it Aphrodite?"

"Oh!" I said looking at the woman. "That's who you are!"

"Duh." Said Percy.

"Yes that is correct." Aphrodite said to Percy. "That missing daughter is Laina."

Percy sighed. "So the prophecy has started." He stated.

"What prophecy?" I asked.

"Rachel had one while you were gone. It is the longest she's ever had and from the sound of it, the most dangerous. It threatens many different things."

"May I hear it?"

"I have it written down in my cabin. I'll show it to you later." He turned his attention back to Aphrodite. "Do you have any ideas about any of the other lines?"

Aphrodite turned slightly pale. "I am _very _worried about that last line; the one about doing what's been done before. That does not sound good."

Percy nodded. "That could mean anything."

"Not necessarily." Aphrodite mumbled so that only I could hear.

I shook my head. It was getting harder and harder to focus. "I'm going to bed." I exclaimed walking up my porch steps.

"But will you help?" The love goddess asked blocking my path.

"Sure." I sighed.

"Yay!" She said like a happy child. She moved out of the way to let me through.

I went into my cabin and plopped down on my bed. I didn't even bother to do much else. The warm black sheets were warm and inviting compared to the frantic world outside my haven. I took off my black jacket and converse and threw them in the corner. I didn't care that I was still in my skinny jeans and skull shirt; I was dead tired (sorry bad pun). I closed my eyes and was asleep within seconds.

I'd like to tell you that I had a peaceful and perfect sleep but see - that would be lying.

**So that was chapter 6 I believe. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll go into his dream soon don't worry. It is **_**very **_**important so I won't take it lightly. Like I said before I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible.**

**-Mindrider**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you all for reading! By the way, I know I messed up that sentence back in chapter 6. I said 'the warm sheets were warm and inviting'. What I meant to say was 'the sheets looked warm and inviting'. So sorry about that. Anywho, here is chapter seven. Thank you to all of you who favorited the story. I'm glad you like it. Oh, and I wanted to talk to the reviewer NIKEismynamedontwearitoout because they asked if there was going to be romance. Well, to answer your question NIKE, I'm not too much of a romance writer but considering a good half of you would hate me if I didn't put any in, I do have a few scenes in my head. And I am very glad that you think Nico is attractive. **

_**Laina's POV**_

**A Darned Vampire Sinks My Happy Boat**

As soon as we got close to Camp Half Blood I started shaking. Partly yes, because it was cold, but for the most part it was because I was excited. When you find out that the best books you have ever read in your entire life are actually real you tend to become slightly giddy in the head.

As we got closer I got better and better at looking through the mist. I could see Peleus very well now, for his green scales reflected the light like a mirror. We were less then a mile away and I think I was annoying Starfly with all my squirming. When we got close enough to the hill, Rachel gave the command, 'hazafous' which means 'ground'. Starfly's wings turned and we swooped so low I had grass flying up in my face.

I had never liked landings on planes. The noise that the air makes when it's whooshing against the walls just freaks me out and makes me think we are going to crash. But in this case the landing was the best part of it. You can feel the wind against your face but you knew you aren't going to fall off. Something about being on a Pegasus is just reassuring. In fact, at one point it was so fun I was laughing hysterically at the concept of it. Rachel turned to look at me and she too was laughing. We laughed together on a silver Pegasus as we made our way to the camp for half gods. Sounds crazy huh? Well it was. As we zeroed in on the ground we were both giggling like mental patients on laughing gas. In fact, we were both so freakishly happy that we didn't even notice the fact that there was a lone figure standing in the shadows of half blood hill.

_**Third person POV**_

The figure was averagely short and averagely tall; averagely fat and averagely thin. If you saw the figure from far away then you would say it looked absolutely one hundred percent unsuspicious. But of course it wasn't.

"Go on ahead Debbi. Show them what Empousi are made of." Kelli said eagerly.

Debbi could tell that Kelli was anxious to kill them. They both were, they hadn't had a good meal in weeks and both their mouths ached and ached for the wonderful taste of fresh blood. Not to mention the fact that Kelli had lost to the demigodish sort before and did not want to risk it again.

"Come on now Debbie we don't have all day."

Debbie gulped and stared up at the two happy figures on the Pegasus. She had never killed unnecessarily before and wasn't anxious to start now. But she didn't want to disappoint her mother so she pulled the gun out of her pocket.

"There you go." Kelli said eagerly, eyeing Debbie's every move. They were both in their real forms and their cheerleading bags lay at their feet. They hated having to disguise themselves as mortals. It was so… unsatisfying to be around such tasty snacks and to not be allowed even one. Granted, they technically _could_ eat them but that would arise a good deal of suspicion and when there is suspicion there are answers. And when there are answers there are witnesses, and well, Debbie wasn't in the mood to have to drink more than the proper amount of blood.

So here she was, standing in the forest, just feet away from the grand old Camp Half-Blood and she was too chicken to shoot any half bloods. It was so outlandishly dumb that Debbie felt the need to smack herself. Her mother was standing there, waiting for her daughter to do what she had literally been born to do and Debbie was too scared to even try.

"My dear," Kelli said resting an arm on Debbie's shoulder. "Are you going to shoot them or am I going to have to do it. They are approaching camp and soon they will be within the boundaries. Our gun is magical so the bullet will not make it through if they get inside before you pull the trigger."

Debbie took a deep breath. She needed to do this. It was the only way to gain her mother's respect. "Alright mom. I will do it."

Kelli squealed excitedly and watched intently as her only daughter raised the gun to eye level and pointed it at the two demigods. She aimed carefully, predicting the movements of the girls and making sure that she had the gun adjusted accordingly. A bead of sweat trickled down Debbie's forehead and she could only hope that Kelli hadn't seen it. She stared squinty eyed at the girls, pretending to be focusing on how to kill them but actually just fretting over the task that awaited her.

The problem wasn't that she couldn't physically hit them. She had had tons of practice with things like this and could probably do it blindfolded. No, the real problem was that she just didn't want to. She hated killing people, even when it was just for meals. She closed her eyes every time and plugged her nose until the blood was all gone.

This was the complete opposite of her mom. Kelli would bite into the humans with pleasure and happiness, not even thinking about how many lives she was ending and how many dreams she had prevented from happening. Debbie tried to do the same thing, and usually succeeded, but here in the shadows, watching as her next meal flew happily around, not even thinking about the fact that it was going to be dead in a matter of seconds, Debbie felt, well, scared. Guilty, almost, for what she was about to do. She had felt guilt many times before, after each meal in fact, but never had it been so bad that she was almost willing to disobey her own mother. But now she felt it. Now she felt the need to drop the gun and back away from all of this. Leave her old life behind and become one of those vegetarian Empousi that she had read about in a book Kelli had made her read. But even she knew in this moment of insanity that that couldn't be done. If she disobeyed her mother she would surely be locked in a cell in Alcatraz like the poor old Briares. Maybe even something worse. But what she did know was that this was going to be her last kill. No matter what Kelli said she was not going to be a part of this any more. Maybe she would have to lie, run away, do whatever, but she was not going to kill another living thing. She moved the gun slightly lower in the air and her shoulders tensed as she prepared to shoot.

_I'm sorry._ She thought in her head. _I do not want to do this._

She took one last deep breath before doing exactly what her mother wanted her to do. She tightened her grip on the gun and finally, finally, she pulled down the trigger.

"NO!" Screamed Kelli. "YOU IDIOT!"

Debbie smiled as the bullet shot through the air faster than the odd quarter that had fallen on them on their way to the hill. Even though it hadn't hit its target yet they both knew where it was going. The pain had been too much for her. She couldn't hit them.

"How dare you?" Kelli screamed, her face red with rage. "After all I've taught you!" She looked back at the small piece of metal that was still whizzing through the air. She let loose a scream of anger before grabbing the gun from Debbie's hand. One bullet remained unused and Kelli knew that she had to kill what her daughter had not. She held the gun up towards the girls one last time and pulled the trigger down. This time it did not miss its mark.

_**Elaine's POV**_

You know, I wish that I could say that we saw the figure in time.

That we prevented the horror with hours to spare.

I wish that I could tell you that we did exactly what Percy did; got into trouble and then saved the day.

But the truth is we didn't.

The truth is that we didn't see the figure on the hill. We didn't see her take a small black thing out of her pocket. We didn't see her hold up the black thing and aim it in the air in our direction. We didn't even see the smaller black thing shooting through the air on its way to come kill us.

But I did see it before it hit us.

A loud scream echoed in the air.

"NO, YOU IDIOT!" Someone yelled.

A fuzzy vision filled my head and in this vision I saw two girls with large fangs and bloodshot eyes. One was holding a gun and another that looked older than her was standing behind her glowering at her.

"After all I've taught you!" The glowering girl screeched, her face redder than a tomato.

I looked past the younger girl at and saw me and Rachel on the Pegasus headed towards camp. A black dot was headed right towards us and my eyes widened. I gasped as the realization hit me.

The two girls in the woods were demons.

And the black dot coming our way was a bullet.

Oh Gods.

I didn't have time to have any reaction to this sudden thought. I knew that the shot would hit us any minute so I did the only thing logical to do. I reached around Rachel, grasped Starfly's mane, and yanked it hard. The vision shimmered away and Starfly shot up in the air.

"NO!" The younger, higher voiced demon shouted.

At first I thought it was because we had ruined her plot but I realized only milliseconds later that that was not the case. The shiny bullet pierced through the air and engraved itself in Starfly's side. His wings stuttered and we jolted around in the air. I hadn't realized what I had brought upon us when I pulled Starfly's mane. I realized it now though.

The bullet wasn't going to hit us. It was going to go slightly over our heads. When I yanked on Starfly's mane I caused him to go to where the bullet was aiming.

I caused him to put his heart in front of it.

I caused him to die.

I let out a whimper as we tumbled through the air. Rachel was screaming bloody murder and I would've been too if I wasn't in such shock after what I had done. Starfly's body was tumbling out of the sky with us on his back, a bullet in his heart, already almost dead. His wound was seeping red blood and it was spreading around, covering his entire right side. I knew that there was no way for me to try to save us. We were all doomed just because I pulled on that mane.

I didn't just cause Starfly to die.

I caused all of us to.

I started crying then, real crying. Bawling and screaming worse than any child temper tantrum. If I hadn't been so destroyed I would've said that my cries shook the earth. To me it seemed like the ground was rumbling far beneath us and responding to my every word. We were only seconds away from hitting it hard and the only thing I could think about was keeping Rachel safe.

I could not let her die because of my mistake.

I imagined the ground as a soft pillow that would cushion her as soon as she hit it.

I imagined it bending in such a way that no matter how hard she fell she would be fine. I heard thunder from the sky and I felt like the entire world was in my hands. I felt like if I made one wrong thought or one wrong breath I would kill every living soul. But I also felt like I could save Rachel.

I felt… Powerful.

I held my arms above my head and my small wimpy muscles tensed. The hill was really shaking now and I felt a small trace of dirt in my veins. I felt very unpredictable, like I could change the entire way things were going to turn out with a simple flick of my pinky finger. I knew that this wasn't normal. No mortal was supposed to have this much power.

_But what if I'm not a mortal? _I thought. _What if I'm… Laina?_

The thought was only in my head for a second or so but that was long enough for me to realize that I really did believe Rachel and Affie. No matter whom they really were or what their real names were. I did believe them. For the first time I knew that there were people in the world that I could trust with everything I knew, all of my hopes and dreams and secrets.

And one of those people was about to die.

I swallowed a gulp and slowly forced my hands into fists. This may not seem like a big action to you but it took a great deal of precision and carefulness to make sure that I didn't mess up. I felt the earth way, way below me, responding to what I was doing, and a small smile appeared on my lips.

It disappeared soon after though. I looked down at the slowly approaching ground. Right now it looked somewhat goopy but with chunks of hardness buried inside. I knew that this wasn't safe to land in and Rachel would be killed almost instantly. I squinted my eyes and concentrated on liquefying. It was a very difficult task and reminded me of trying to get a small perfect line on a piece of paper using a very thick paintbrush. I could feel the sweat trickling down my face and I knew that I only had a few more seconds before we collided with the hill. I could hear the demons yelling in the woods but I couldn't concentrate on what they were saying. It felt like how Percy described carrying the sky. It seemed like I was carrying a ton of trucks and I couldn't let go or release them or else a lot of people would be killed. I wanted to stop and just let myself die but I knew I couldn't.

I grimaced as my back cracked under the weight. My fists were becoming too tight and the ground was getting hard again. I had virtually no time to fix it. All I could do was squint harder and lighten up on my fists. My eyes felt red as though I had just been crying (which, now that I think about it, I actually had been) and I felt like I had just run fifty marathons in a row. We were getting closer and closer to the grass but luckily, time seemed to be going in super slow motion. This gave me longer to concentrate but was also just more time to fret over what I had done. I almost wished I would die already and get it over with.

I felt an odd shock go through the air and I loosened my grip dramatically. The ground turned into brown and green water.

I looked over off at the woods. Another bullet was coming at us. And I don't mean, _in our general direction_. I mean, _right at us_.

I watched the bullet with lazy eyes, not even bothering to try to save myself. I knew that there was no way that I would ever be able to dodge it, even with things going as slow as they were. The ground was completely liquid at this point and I figured that if I wasn't about to be hit by a bullet then I might've actually survived. I thought about my mom at the mall. I was positive that it was past twelve by now and she was probably getting worried. I felt a tear stream down my cheek as I thought about how hard she had worked to raise me and how sad she was going be when some mysterious person shows up at her door to tell her that her only daughter is dead.

I just hoped that they would tell her how I died and she won't spend the rest of her life wondering sadly next to my father. I didn't have any siblings to worry about but my dog Selena was definitely a concern. I loved my family a lot more than I imagined and right now, in the face of death, I knew that I always had. My last remaining tears trickled down my face and I sighed, ignoring the tickling feeling in my stomach coming from going straight down in the air. I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst.

Suddenly it was as though someone took the remote of the world and changed it from super slow mo to fast forward. The bullet continued moving towards me and before I could react it was at me.

When that minute was over, Starfly wasn't the only one with a piece of metal engraved in his heart.

**Alright, I hoped you enjoyed it. I'm sorry it took longer than usual for me to post. I found this chapter difficult to type because I am not used to action scenes. Did you like the third person POV? Did you find it weird to have it in the middle of a chapter? Did you think I did alright with the action? I would appreciate the answers to these questions along with the one about what a Mary Sue character is. I'm not too good on the emotional bits but I'm hoping to get better throughout the story. So don't hate me because I'm bad at it. I promise that things will become a good deal better in the next few chapters. Whether Laina is part of them or not, you are going to have to wait and see. By the way, longest chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello! The next chapter is finished and ready to be read. It's not the most exciting of all chapters but it is necessary. And I just beat my longest chapter record… Again!**

_**Nico's POV**_

**The Blood Thief**

It would be wonderful to tell you that I had a perfect sleep in which I dreamed about dancing skeletons and fast food. But unfortunately I can't. Demigods have this problem where they often dream about things that are either happening, have happened, or will happen. So when I dreamt that lord Zeus was wearing a flower patterned shirt with the word 'groovy' written in big purple letters across the front I could only hope that this had happened in the past.

The dream took place in the throne room of Olympus. Well, I guess you can call it a room. The place is the size of a regular mortal neighborhood morphed together with about five football stadiums. Eleven thrones were placed along the walls of the room and they each had a personality. Poseidon's, for instance, was made up of various sized pieces of seaweed while Hera's was all white and gave off light worse than a million flashlights. You're probably wondering why there are eleven thrones and not twelve. This is because my father is considered some sort of outcast so whenever he comes he is forced to bring his own chair. This of course results in much arguing over the fact that his chair is a simple spinney desk thing while everyone else's is nailed to the floor. So in the scene I was watching, Hades and Zeus were having a small squabble over the fact that Hades might get the chair pulled out from under him in the middle of an important conversation.

"But Zeus!" Cried the lord of the dead. "It is extraordinarily important that there is no risk of my falling off. If that were to happen then I would have to find someone else to take care of the underworld while I'm stuck in bed. There is absolutely no one I trust more than myself." He looked intensely at Zeus, waiting to see his reaction.

"Oh can it Hades. If you fell off of your chair the worst thing that could happen would be that you would get the seat of your pants a little dusty."

Hades fumed and glared his dark, evil glare at the lord of the sky. "I am the all powerful lord Hades and I insist upon having my own throne."

Zeus crossed his arms across his chest, underlining the word 'groovy'. "Well tell me when you're willing to get off your lazy bum and come build one."

"Hey! You did not just call my bum lazy, because if you-"

"Both of you be quiet." Said Athena with a roll of her eyes. "We are a group of very serious, problem solving gods and goddesses. We cannot afford to have small arguments over things as dumb as which chairs you sit in."

"Yes." Agreed Apollo. "Someone might try to blow someone else up."

He stroked his chin with his right hand, thinking over what he had just said. "Actually, on second thought; go right ahead and fight."

"Apollo!" Exclaimed Artemis.

"Sorry lil sis; just ruling out my opponents one by one." He smiled evilly and all of the gods shuddered.

"Anyway." Said Zeus. "We are gathered here today to discuss the important job of recreating what has been destroyed." His eyes became softer and he looked at the ground. "We are all to blame for the recent loss of our daughter, and we are all going to make this right." He looked up and his eyes moved to the god of messengers. "I would like to thank Hermes for the smart idea to make this new daughter all of ours."

The gods all clapped and Hermes nodded, trying to look professional but allowing his mouth to curve up slightly. "Thank you lord Zeus."

The god of the sky nodded and then continued. "This service is going to be short, and each and every one of us will have a part in it. We are going to start on the right with Aphrodite and work our way around the circle to everybody. When we get to you, you will cut a slit in your wrist with a knife and fill this small Dixie cup with your blood until it reaches the two inch mark. When your cup is full you will walk over and place your cup on the long table in the front of the room." He pointed to the white table that was right next to me.

They all turned their heads and I expected them to see me instantly but apparently I was invisible to them, for they turned back to Zeus after only a second or two.

"Once your cup is on the table you will follow Aphrodite over to the mold in the center of the room."

I looked inside the ring of immortals and sure enough a golden mold was placed smack dab in the middle. It was the form of a girl, cut in half with the two parts lying right next to each other. I doubted that all the blood would come even close to filling the entire thing but it wasn't like I could ask anybody.

"Aphrodite will be the first of us to carefully poor her cup into the mold and then recite these lines." Zeus continued, holding up a sheet of paper at the word 'lines'. "Everyone will have to say the last line of each person's chant together or else the spell will not take. When Aphrodite is through, Hephaestus will go, and then Ares and so on. When we are all done there is one last spell we will need to recite together that is very short and easy to say. Aphrodite, please begin passing around the knife."

The goddess of love, her hair brown and curly, sat cross legged on her throne staring disgustedly at the sharp blade in her hand. It was obvious that she did not want to touch any part of her body with that thing and that she wasn't planning on doing so any time soon. Zeus tapped his foot and scratched his blackish grayish beard edgily.

"My dear, are you going to do it or not. Hades is going to begin getting impatient."

"Of course, _I'm _the impatient one." Hades mumbled under his breath.

"I'm sorry father," said Aphrodite. "But scars just aren't my forte. Is there any other way to do it?"

Apollo chuckled but Zeus scowled. "No, my daughter. There is no other way to do it. Now please hurry. I let you go first so that you wouldn't complain about the germs on the knife. If you don't do it now than we are going to have to make you last when the knife will be _covered _in blood." His mouth twitched to show that he knew he'd won.

"Ugh!" Groaned the love goddess. "Do I _have _to do it?"

"Well…" Thought Zeus. "Not necessarily. It will still work the same if one of us doesn't contribute, but this means that the girl will not have as much beauty."

Aphrodite pouted and examined her perfect wrist. "I can't just spit into it?"

Apollo burst out laughing and Artemis fixed him with a disapproving glare.

"No Aphrodite." Zeus said in an irritated voice. "Saliva will do absolutely nothing even with the chant. The only thing that will have an effect is blood. So either cut your wrist or pass the knife over to Hephaestus."

She pouted at the ruler of the gods and closed her eyes but reluctantly held the blade over her wrist. She grimaced as she brought it down and whimpered as she traced a short line along her pale arm.

"Good job darling." Said Zeus.

She handed the knife to her husband and positioned her wrist cautiously over the cup. The golden liquid trickled into it but the wound was closing fast. Gods have abnormal healing powers so for a small cut such as this one it was unlikely that she would get enough blood out before the entire scrape was gone. Aphrodite realized this and groaned as she pulled the skin on either sides of the slit in opposite ways. The healing stopped abruptly and the ichor fell into the cup at a much faster speed. Eventually it made its way up to the pre drawn line on the outside of the cup and she let go of her wrist.

"That was disgusting." Apollo confirmed.

"No, you think?" Aphrodite said sarcastically.

Apollo smiled happily, not even measuring her sarcasm. He was probably looking forward to his turn, just to prove that he was tougher than the love goddess.

"So what do I do now?" She asked, staring at the cup of golden liquid with a look of revulsion.

"Place your cup on the table over by the door and when everyone has done the same you will pour it into the mold."

Aphrodite nodded and got up to put the cup on the table. She passed me quickly but I was still able to identify the scent of her perfume as she sauntered by.

"Now Hephaestus, go ahead and do the same thing Aphrodite did."

Hephaestus did so quickly, and the blade passed around from person to person, immortal to immortal, until it had made its way around the entire circle.

The last god to contribute was Zeus himself and Apollo smiled as he noticed the slight grimace sound he made.

"I knew I was the toughest." He whispered to himself. Ares socked him in the nose.

Zeus finished up his turn and placed his cup on the table that already had eleven cups on it.

"What's next?" Asked Aphrodite.

"Come and poor yours into the mold." Said Zeus, hopping off his throne.

The other gods followed his example and crowded around the metal, two pieced girl. A spot was left for Aphrodite and she carried the cup of blood carefully over to it. Once in her place, she began to pour.

The golden liquid dripped slowly into the mold. It was thicker than most blood and it stuck to the sides of the cup. Zeus handed her a spatula (from who knows where) and she got the remains out. The blood was not much and it barely filled the mold girls' nose. Aphrodite realized this and pouted.

"How is our blood supposed to fill _all_ of her?"

"When magic is involved, anything is possible." Zeus said, smiling at his cheesy line. All but Apollo (who was massaging his nose) groaned.

"So what do I do now?" Asked Aphrodite.

Zeus handed her a sheet of paper with black Greek letters written on it. "Read these lines out loud," he said pointing at the paper. "And everyone else, recite this line in unison with her."

He passed a sheet around to everybody and they all nodded. "Go ahead and begin my dear daughter."

Aphrodite followed his instructions and started.

"Όταν όλες οι χάθηκε κάναμε μια συμφωνία για να αναδημιουργήσουν αυτό που μας άφησε. Έτσι κάνετε το κορίτσι ζωντανός και καλά, χαρούμενος, και χρήσιμη όσο και τα άλλα ήταν μια φορά.Δώστε ζωή της από όλους μας, εμένα και όλους τους άλλους. Και βεβαιωθείτε ότι κανείς δεν έχει περισσότερη δύναμη από τον καθένα. Πάρτε αυτό το αίμα, μετατρέποντάς το σε μια μορφή αθάνατη ζωή. Πάρτε αυτό το αίμα και να ξαναφτιάξει Λαϊνά!"

Aphrodite chanted the words, carefully and perfectly; not even breaking in between sentences. Her voice echoed around the large chamber and made her sound much bigger than she actually was (well compared to the other gods anyway. If this hadn't been a dream then she would be the size of a skyscraper to me). I recognized almost all of the words and together it was something like this:

"When all was lost we made a pact to recreate what left us. So make the girl alive and well, happy, and helpful as the other once was. Give her life from all of us, me and everyone else. And make sure that no one has more power than anyone. Take this blood and turn it into a form of immortal life. Take this blood and recreate Laina!"

The last line about recreating Laina was when all of the others chimed in and said the words together. I was amazed at how good they all were. The kids back at camp couldn't chant half this well. I smiled at the perfectness and then realized that I was happy that the Greek gods knew Greek.

Aphrodite tossed her cup into a convenient trash can and everyone watched as Hephaestus repeated the procedure. After he was done he passed the paper to Ares, then Apollo, then Artemis then Demeter and so on. They repeated the same thing over and over again and I began to get bored. I sat down on the tiled floor and watched them through the corner of my eye. I didn't know if it was possible to be tired while you're sleeping but I felt like I was.

_Why would I be shown something as boring as this? _I wondered. _I mean, I know I'll be helping this girl tomorrow but is it really important that I know her entire background?_

I sighed and naturally it made no noise. I looked down at my wrist, forgetting that I had no watch, before absentmindedly twirling a strand of my longish hair around my index finger (yeah, yeah, girly I know. But when you're bored and invisible there are some things that you are allowed to resort to).

I was just about to go over and see what would happen if I tried to poke someone when I heard the sound of breathing behind me.

I whirled around and was surprised to see that nobody was there.

"Annabeth?" I called, because I knew she had that magical baseball cap that can turn her invisible.

There was no response.

I was about to turn back around when I heard the pitter patter of shoes on the tile floor. They were very quiet and seemed to be coming more from below me then next to me. I looked down and was surprised to find that a small caped figure was running right next to my left foot. I attempted to grab it but because it was a dream it ran right threw my hand. It continued its sprint until it reached the leg of the small table with the blood on top. It's hands were gloved and it's pants matched his black cape so I had no way if identifying it at all. It had one of those hooks attached to a piece of rope in its hand and it swung it around like a lasso. It threw the rope up at the table and it caught the edge just like in the movies.

I looked over at the gods, trying to tell if anyone had seen it. It was Dionysus's turn to chant and he was about halfway through it, only at the part about 'giving her life from everyone'.

I looked back at the figure and was surprised to see that it was a fast runner and was already almost to the top of the rope. It was panting like heck and seemed very tired for such a fast climber. It reached the top and bundled the whole rope into a knot before slipping it under it's cape. I watched intently as it ran around the cups, touching them and shaking it's head after each time. The gods, still clueless as ever, listened as Dionysus got to the part of the spell where it talks about equal power in the girl. Luckily for the figure, the god of the wine was a very slow reader so it had a while before it needed to worry about being caught. It had chosen the right time to come.

I looked at the table and gasped as I saw that the figure had stopped. The cup that it was touching was the one on the far left of the tabletop. It had been the last one put up there so I knew that it was lord Zeus's.

I could've sworn I saw the caped person smile as they attached some sort of mechanism to the side of the cup.

_Is it seriously trying to clone the ruler of the sky? _I wondered. _Maybe it's just borrowing a bit of the blood for a research project._

The cup began to shake violently.

_Yeah, doubtful._

The cup continued trembling and I was surprised that the gods hadn't noticed it yet. Dionysus was finishing his last few lines and the figure was running out of time. I found myself rooting for it, hoping that it makes it, much like how you feel watching a T.V. show. But this was no T.V. show.

No, this was reality.

The cup shook for a few more seconds before suddenly shrinking. It caught me off guard and I took a jump back from the table as the cup continued getting smaller and smaller. Soon it was small enough for the figure to hold and it took the mechanism off the side. It pulled something else out from under it's cape and attached the mechanism to it. It fiddled with the thing for a few moments before pressing one last button, causing the new object to get bigger and bigger. Dionysus was onto his last line by himself and I knew that the caped thing had to move it if it didn't intend on getting caught. The new object continued it's growing and soon I was able to recognize it as another cup, identical to the one that it had taken.

_It has stolen Zeus' blood._ I realized with a tremble.

The cup finished growing and the thief pulled the machine off of its side. It then looked at the cup of stolen blood in it's hand and began to tremble with excitement. It pulled it's mask up to it's nose before doing the grossest thing that I had ever seen anyone do before in there life (and I live with a bunch of teenagers).

It held the cup up to it's lips and drank the blood down in one gulp.

I very nearly barfed.

The figure finished drinking in only a few seconds and almost instantly a blue glow surrounded it making it look very powerful. It put the cup back under it's cape and walked over to the edge of the table.

_How is it going to get down? _I wondered. _It can't use the lasso thing again._

It answered my question by jumping off the table.

I expected it to hit the ground with a thud and roll over on it's back to die but instead it touched the ground gracefully, landing perfectly on it's feet. It wiped it's gloved hands off on it's pants before exploding into a small column of fire. The gods who had just finished reciting Dionysus' line all looked over in surprise.

"What was that?" Asked Hera who was supposed to go next.

"I have no idea." Said Zeus. "It must have been one of the minor godlings outside."

They all nodded and turned to Hera who walked gracefully over to the table to get her cup.

I watched astonishment as the gods continued their business as though they didn't just make one of the biggest mistakes of their lives. Each remaining god poured their blood and said there lines, and eventually it was time for Zeus to go. He got out of his throne casually and walked over to the table. Only one cup of blood remained there and I wanted to scream at him that it was phony. He picked up the cup and walked back over to the mold. He poured it slowly and carefully into the body as if to say, 'hey look at my blood! It's so cool and powerful looking!'. I half expected the god to announce that it was fake and that his real blood had been stolen, but he didn't and the process went as usual.

My stomach felt sick and I wanted to grab lord Zeus by the shoulders and shake him until he understood. He recited the lines and I sat on the ground hopeless. I felt nauseous and corrupt and it didn't help much when I felt someone shaking me.

"Nico! Get up, it's important!" Someone said loudly, seeming like they were right next to my ear. I turned around and looked in every which way but the room was empty except for me and the gods.

I looked over at them to see if they heard the voices too but they were beginning to fade away.

The weird voice continued it's yelling. "Wake up already, my gods you're a heavy sleeper!"

I recognized the voice from somewhere, some girl I knew, but I wasn't quite sure who it was.

"Come on! Wake up!" The voice screeched.

The entire scene went black and I gasped as my eyes opened. Annabeth was standing next to my bed and she was shaking my shoulders. Her face looked serious and scared.

"What do you want Annabeth?" I groaned, unhappy that someone was waking me up during such an important dream.

She ignored my rudeness and continued in the same rushed tone. "It's Laina." She said anxiously.

"She's here?" I asked. "Already?"

She nodded and her messy blonde hair flopped around on her shoulders. "Yes, she flew in on a Pegasus with Rachel a few minutes ago."

I opened my mouth and closed it a few times before answering in the most polite voice I could manage. "So you woke me up, _because_?"

She crossed her arms and looked at me appallingly, her jaw hard and angry. "Well, excuse me Mr. di Angelo. I just thought you would be at least slightly concerned about the fact that at this moment she's unconscious, practically drowning in her own blood, and barely breathing."

**I hoped you like it. I know, unsatisfying ending. I am excited for this next chapter so I'm hoping that it will make me want to post sooner. You know what else will make me want to post sooner? *wink wink* I have a feeling you know. I'm hoping that this chapter wasn't boring for you. It was boring for me, I'll tell you that. It's hard to write a scene about someone when you don't know their gender so you have to call them 'it'. I had to keep rereading it over and over again. So I am pretty much sick of this one! I hoped you were not as bored as I.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ok, I have to admit, I like this chapter a lot. The end, at least, was fun to write and I enjoyed it much more than the previous chapter. The only hard thing about it was that I am trying to do what reviewer 'Kay Celestine' suggested and adding more detail after and before my dialogue. That's a pretty hard thing to do and I'm not sure if I did it right but I'm hoping that I at least did better than before. Tell me if you like it as much as I did!**

_**Nico's POV**_

**Explanations and More Explanations**

"She's what?" I asked, sitting up in my bed so fast that I banged my head on the top bunk.

"She's nearly dead!" Annabeth cried so loud, I was positive she had awoken my mother. "Something tried to kill her while she was flying in. Come on, let's go!" She grabbed m wrist and tried to pull me out of bed.

"Wait." I said holding up my free hand. "I need the whole story."  
Annabeth groaned and looked around frantically. "Look Nico, I'll tell you the story on the way there. Dionysus will be crushed if she goes vegetable because of the pain."

I began the challenging task of unhooking my feet from the comforter. It was about then that I processed what she had said. "Whoa, hold on! That can happen?"

"Well yeah," she said sounding irritated. "It happened to that demigod who came last June. Don't you remember? That Hermes kid."

I faintly remembered hearing about that but I didn't have time to really think about it. "I still don't get why this is such a big deal." I said, lifting my right leg out from the blanket. "I mean, yes she's important but why do _we _need to be there?"

Annabeth continued fumbling with the sheet. "It is _very _important for us to be there Nico. Her being gone could cause many bad things to happen."

"Oh really? like what?"

She sighed and gave me an annoyed look. "Do you remember the story of the first Laina? The one who cut herself into millions of pieces to save the world from being destroyed."

"Yeah," I said. "Aphrodite and I talked about it yesterday."

"Why were you–" she shook her head. "Oh never mind. But do you know how sad the gods were when they found out that she was dead?"

"Well," I thought about it for a moment. "She was their daughter so I'm guessing they were pretty depressed."

"Very, _very_ depressed, Nico. As bad as your father but times twelve."

I gulped and pulled my left leg free. "So, you're saying that if this one passes then there will be no cure for them?"

"Exactly." She said standing up. "So we need to be there so that we can help out as much as we can." She looked at her watch. "It's about three p.m. She's been unconscious for ten minutes, that we know of. Rachel is telling Chiron the story right now. If we run we can catch the tail end of it."

I nodded and we both took off out the door.

Camp half blood looked different then how I remembered it. I had been too tired to check the place out before, but I saw it now. My father's cabin hadn't been the only knew one to be constructed when I left during the summer. A knew path went into the woods and led to an entire new section of cabins for the minor gods and goddesses and a few new ones were packed into the first wing. I recognized Nemesis and Cupid but I didn't know too many other minor gods. Annabeth and I ran around piles of wood, rock and other building materials to get where everyone else was.

Rachel, Chiron, Percy, Clarisse, Chris, Travis, and Conner were all crowded around a group of Apollo campers who were leaning over a body. I couldn't see it from where I was but I knew from the amount of golden blood on the grass that it was Laina.

They were all on the top of the hill and Peleus the dragon was as close to the line as he could be without getting magically repelled. Rachel was talking and the first thing I noticed about her was that she was a mess. She was covered in mud and dirt and her clothes were brown. Her hair was an even bigger wreck than it usually was and her eyes were red and puffy. Everyone was listening as she told her story and Annabeth and I soon joined the group, panting more than Mrs. O'Leary.

"And then she just suddenly reached around me and pulled on the mane." Rachel said. "It was the weirdest thing. She was all, mechanical, almost like me when I have a prophecy. And then Starfly sort of jolted lower and a second later he was dead. It was all so fast I could barely process what was happening and-" She took a deep breath and tears rolled down her face. "And after that we just sort of fell until another bullet came out of nowhere and hit Laina right in the neck. She didn't even scream or anything. She had been creating this big ball of power behind me and the second before we hit the ground it all just disappeared. I had no idea that that was because she had been _shot_." Another flow of tears flooded down her face.

To be honest, I had no idea about what was going on. I mean, I knew that Rachel had been planning on spending time during the school year disguised as a sixth grader but I hadn't found out why before I had to leave for the underworld. My guess had been that she was going to be doing the same sort of thing that Chiron did with Percy – keeping tabs on possible recruits – but I hadn't expected it to be a missing goddess. Looking at Rachel now made me see really how much she must have liked this girl. She had always struck me as one of those tough people who doesn't cry unless they absolutely have to, so it pained me to see her so messed up. Suddenly, I was willing to do anything in the entire world to help her.

"So Starfly was shot first?" Asked Percy, jotting down notes in a dark blue notebook.

"Yes. And were crash landing because of that when the second bullet hit." Rachel explained.

Chiron stroked his beard with his fingers, trying to process what she was saying. "Which direction did the bullets come from?" he asked finally.

"Near by Thalia's Pine." Said Rachel as she wiped her wet eyes. "In the little bit of woods next to it."

Chiron nodded and motioned to a group of armored Ares kids I hadn't noticed before. "I would like all of you to go into the woods and investigate. If you find any evidence keep it there. If you find the demon go ahead and fight it. If you need help radio us." He handed a girl with huge muscles and a large spear a walkie talkie before turning back to Rachel. "So let me review this. You were flying on Starfly down to camp when a mysterious bullet came out of the woods. Laina reached around you, pulled on Starfly's mane, and caused it to hit him in the stomach. You were both falling when you began to notice a magical sensation behind you which you later found out to be Laina trying to control the ground. You heard screaming that wasn't your own and then another bullet shot out of the woods and hit Laina in the neck. Is that all correct?"

Rachel nodded.

"Did you get all of that Percy?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Are there questions from any of you?" He looked around at our circle.

I raised my hand cautiously.

"Yes Nico?"

They all turned their heads to look at me and I blushed. I wasn't usually much of a talker.

"How did you survive the fall?" I asked Rachel.

This caused another flow of tears to cascade down her cheek. "She…She made the ground all soft and watery. That was the magic that she had been using when we were falling. If she hadn't been shot we both would be fine." She shook her head. "She saved me."

Chiron nodded and Travis patted her back.

"It's okay Rachel." Travis said softly. "She'll be fine."

We all gaped at him and he pouted in offense.

"I can be nice sometimes!"

Rachel smiled and wiped her eyes. "Sorry, I'm not usually an emotional person."

"Oh I know." Said Percy quietly.

We had an awkward moment of silence in which everyone looked either up at the sky, down at their feet, at Rachel, at the Apollo kids, at Laina, or just plain old off into space.

"So how's she doing?" Rachel asked turning to the Apollo campers, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

Will Solace stood up and brushed his hands together. His face was chalky white and he looked very tired. "She's obviously alive, but we still have a lot of work to do." He announced. "Her powers haven't really kicked in yet so the healing process is only slightly faster than average. If Aphrodite givers her a blessing it might work better. Is she still here?"

A red haired girl who was leaning against a tree looked up. "Yeah, I'm still here. Why?"

The Apollo kids moved out of the way and I caught a glimpse of a brunette girl coated in golden ichor.

"You need to give her a blessing." Said Will. "If you do then she might have enough magic in her to make the healing work faster. Do you know how to do that?"

Aphrodite nodded. "Yes, I know how." She got up from her spot near the tree and walked cautiously over to Laina. She made a face as soon as she saw her and seemed disgusted by all of the blood, but willing to go near it for her daughters' sake. She leaned over the unconscious girl and touched her hand to her forehead. She stayed like that for a moment before nodding and pulling it away. The group was dead silent and everyone was watching what was going on. I could barely see, but what I could, was bloody and gross and made my head spin. The girls' clothes were ripped and her skin was even dirtier than Rachel's. She had a little bit of red bloodon her which I suppose came from the Pegasus. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was in a frown as if she knew exactly what was going on and wasn't happy about it. From her neck to her stomach she was coated in golden blood and the sight made my stomach lurch.

Aphrodite looked at Laina and frowned. She was staring at her, puzzled, when suddenly she smiled. She held out her own wrist and on it were tons and tons of bracelets. She examined them for a moment before pulling off one with a lot of charms on it. She unhooked it from her wrist and knelt down at the girls' side. She picked Laina's arm up carefully and wrapped the bracelet around it. She clasped it in the back before laying her arm back down on the ground. She then went back up and placed her finger, one again, on her forehead. She closed her eyes and concentrated. This time it was much longer than before. It was a minute or so before she finally looked up again, her face almost as pale as Will's.

"Is her bracelet lit up yet?" She asked, breathing hard.

We all brought our eyes down to her wrist and what we saw caused us all to gasp. One out of all the charms on it was lit up hot pink. Will got down to examine it.

"It says Aphrodite in cursive letters." He said after a moment. "Why did it do that?"

We all turned to love goddess.

"This is how we are supposed to give her our blessings. I am the first of twelve Olympians to do it. This bracelet is how Laina is going to get her powers back, once she is conscious. Whenever a god gives her their blessing a charm is going to light up and she will gain her half blood powers from that god."

"But wait a second." Said Chiron. "Why half blood powers? She is a goddess."

Aphrodite shook her head and a sad smile appeared on her face. "No Chiron, she _was _a goddess. She was reincarnated into a mortal, remember?"

Chiron's tale swished nervously. "Yes I remember, but what effect does that have on her immortality?"

She sighed. "It has a _huge_ effect on her immortality, Chiron. Because she was actually put through mortal birth she is now officially half mortal. She still has her own abilities but they are not nearly as powerful."

"But that doesn't make sense." Said Percy. "The prophecy claims that her powers will be even better. _'With abilities greater and more profound'_." He recited.

Aphrodite shook her head sadly. "That's talking about her _half-blood _powers. Not her goddess ones. It was originally that she had no powers other than her own. Now that she is half mortal, the god blood inside of her has separated into the different Olympians and each section of blood has been split into two, making it so that she has half-blood portions of every single god along with slightly above half blood portions of her own power."

"So stop for a minute." I said. "Are you seriously saying that she is-"

"Yes." Aphrodite interrupted, her eyes slowly moving down until she was staring at the dying girl in the grass. "Along with being a minor goddess herself, the goddess of mortal accomplishments is now a half-blood child of every single Olympian."


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright, I know what is about to happen is a little bit too much like The Sea of Monsters, but it is an important part of the story and you'll see how different it is when I get the next chapter up. So read on and tell me if you like it!**

_**Nico's POV**_

**So She's Not a Carrot?**

Aphrodite's words ran through everybody's heads, refusing to make sense.

"But Aphrodite," began Chiron. "That can't be possible. We need a _full grown goddess _to win whatever war is coming."

She sighed and thought for a moment. "Well…You have me!"

Chiron smiled a forced smile and Conner snorted.

"Wait," I said. "Go back a little bit. What was that about a war that's coming?"

Chiron's eyes bulged and his jaw dropped. "You haven't heard the prophecy yet, have you Nico?"

I shook my head. "No. I've heard _about_ it though."

Chiron turned to everyone else. "Let's take a short break and show Nico the prophecy-"

"Wait, no!" I said suddenly.

They all turned to me and I held my hand out to keep anyone from going anywhere.

"Don't take a break! I don't want Laina to go vegetable because of the pain!"

Annabeth put her hand in front of her mouth and everyone else looked at me weird. Even Laina seemed to have a confused look on her face.

"What?" Asked Chiron.

I blushed. "She could go into a vegetative state because she's in so much pain. It happened to that Hermes kid last June, remember?"

Conner and Travis each raised their right eyebrows and Chiron shook his head.

"Annabeth, what the Hades is he talking about?"

Annabeth giggled. "Nico, you can't go into a vegetative state simply because of pain."

"What?" I asked. "You told me just a few minutes ago that-"

She cut me off. "I told you that because I needed to get you out of your cabin and out here. No Hermes kid turned vegetable."

"I was going to say." Said Travis.

My face burned and I looked down at my shoes. "Oh, sorry."

Chiron chuckled and all but the Apollo kids followed him down the hill. He led us down to the big house where Dionysus was using a spray bottle to send an I.M.

"Yes Zeus, she's up on the top of half-blood hill right now being treated." Dionysus was saying, his voice panicky and nervous sounding.

"Have you seen her yet?" Asked the gruff voiced person on the other side of the I.M.

"No," Dionysus sighed. "Not yet."

The curt man let loose a large amount of air through his nose. "Well why not?"

"Because I was sending this message to you!" the god of wine said irritably.

"Well have _any _gods seen her?"

Dionysus thought for a moment. "I have no clue; Chiron!"

The centaur sighed before responding. "Yes, Dionysus?"

"Have any gods visited Laina yet?"

Chiron thought for a second before nodding. "Aphrodite."

Dionysus groaned. "_She's _here?"

A black haired, gorgeous brown eyed girl piped up from behind me. "Yes Dionysus darling. I am here." She smiled and Mr. D groaned.

"Yes Zeus, Aphrodite visited her."

"Well let me talk to her."

Dionysus moved out of the way and Aphrodite walked over.

"Lord Zeus!" She cried happily. She chatted randomly with Zeus and we listened for a few moments before the ADHD in us began to kick in and we squirmed uncomfortably.

I guess we were beginning to ride on Dionysus' nerves because he gave Chiron the evil eye and the centaur motioned for us to follow him. We happily tiptoed out of the room.

Chiron led us down the hallway with all of the bedrooms in it. There were five of them and all but three were spares. One was Dionysus's and the door to it was purple, the next was Rachel's and it had a sign on the front that said, _'I may not be a blood related child of Apollo but I'm still hot!'_ The last room was one that I had never been in before. A large hoof print was marked on the door and inside of the hoof print was the letter C. Chiron pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door before leading us all inside.

Chiron's room was _not _my taste, I'd hate to say. The walls were a pale yellow and the light bulbs also gave off a yellowish glow. His brownish tanish bed was made so well it looked professional and his magical wheelchair was pushed up against a wall, right next to his beside table. His carpet was absolutely stainless and there was a little mat on the ground just in front of the door that said, _'Wipe your hooves please'_. He led us inside and had us sit on the ground to the left of his bed. The ceiling was a little low for him so he trotted over to his wheelchair and put himself inside it.

"_His bed is so neat._" I whispered to Conner.

"_That's because he doesn't sleep in it._" He whispered back.

I stared at him in confusion but he just smiled mischievously and looked back at Chiron.

"I am just going to get a piece of paper from my stable." Chiron said rolling over towards two closet doors I hadn't noticed before. He opened them up and I was surprised to see that the floor of it was all hay. He rolled his wheels over the hay and moved out of my sight. I looked back at Conner with a look of amazement and he just laughed.

"You didn't think a horse could sleep on a bed did you?"

I chose the wise decision and didn't think too much about it.

Chiron came back and he had a small slip of paper in his hands. "This, Nico, is the longest most recent prophecy from our oracle of Delphi." He looked over at Rachel. "Would you like to read it dear?"

Rachel nodded and stood up. The redness of her face was beginning to fade and I saw some of that familiar determination and ferocity in her eyes. She took the slip from Chiron and cleared her throat before beginning.

"_The missing daughter will soon be found,_

_With abilities greater and more profound._

_She'll see the lonesome in a daft old soul,_

_And bring life to the person burned into coal._

_The old acquaintance will admit his wrong,_

_And the light will change during the skeleton's song._

_The trusted one, evil in the end,_

_Will bring a terrible fate to a, once called, friend._

_The daughter will do what's been done before,_

_To postpone, not end, a terrible war."_

My jaw dropped as she read the lines. This was the longest prophecy that I had ever heard. It was even longer than both of the great ones! Very few of the lines actually sounded like they were to our benefit. The only part that I knew for a fact was good was the part about finding the daughter. She is very powerful and likely to be a huge help even though the majority of her power is only half blood portions.

As for the second line, I guess bringing life to someone burned into coal is good, but it kind of depends on whom. I wouldn't want to think to positively if it was possible that Kronos could be brought to life again. I felt hope stirring inside me that it would be Bianca but I willed that thought to fizzle away.

I had no idea about what old acquaintance they were talking about in the third line. It could really be anybody. The question was _who's _old acquaintance. If it was Chiron's then we were pretty much hopeless trying to figure it out. He knew and knows so many people we would never be able to narrow it down to just one. For that line we would just have to see.

The light changing could be for either the good or the bad. It was the part about the skeleton song that really got me. When I read that line a chill went down my spine and I knew that it had something to do with me, though I had no idea what.

The thing about the trusted one being evil gave me déjà vu like heck. It was courtesy of that Aphrodite girl Silena and how she had actually been a spy for Luke. _That_ hadn't been too much for our benefit.

The line about terrible fates to once called, friends are not usually that promising. The only person who I could think of who was a 'once called, friend' had to be Luke and he was dead. That line from the beginning about bringing life to a person appeared in my mind and it occurred to me that he could be in the line about the one brought to life and the one about the once called friend.

The second to last line about repeating what's been done before really irked me. I wasn't quite sure why but something about it just rang a bell in my head. It gave me a sickening feeling for some reason so I quickly thought about the last line.

It didn't make me feel too much better.

'_To postpone, not end, a terrible war._' Postponing is sometimes good but in the world of Greek gods, that could mean anything. It could mean that we beat them for a long time like what happened with Kronos or it could mean that we lose a ton of campers before they finally decided to surrender. Whichever it was, it definitely promised deaths and I could only hope that one of them was not mine.

To sum things up, this was by far the longest and most confusing prophecy I had ever heard and I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. To be honest, the only thing I did know was that this time around I was not going to take the backseat.

The last few prophecies to be sprouted always had me in the background. I was never some star that everyone looked up to and found amazing and heroic. The only one that ever actually mentioned me by name was the one about perishing by the ghost king's hand. I mean, I guess it's cool to be a ghost king but I wanted to get what Percy had always gotten; the spotlight.

Yeah yeah, dumb, I know. _A child of Hades wanting the spotlight? Go join a drama club!_ But that's not what I'm saying. I don't want the spotlight as Romeo in some romantic play. I want the spotlight as a hero. The sort of spotlight where people don't consider you the emo kid who weeps for his dead sister. The sort of spotlight where you don't have to worry about where you are going to go for your free time at camp. The sort of spotlight where you know exactly where you are going to be every single second of the day. And when you want to, you have friends with you. And when you don't want to, you don't. These days it seems like the complete opposite. Whenever I want to be alone, there is always someone there bothering me. It could be Percy, Annabeth, Aphrodite, my dad, Ronald; basically, I was never alone when I wanted to be.

But when I really needed help and was alone and depressed, I never had anyone to help me. The dead were my only companions and the only times I got to see anybody else was during the summer at camp. For my dad it was the complete opposite. The only time he ever got to see his wife was during the fall and winter. He used to have companions all year, but when my mother died he was left with company for only half of it.

I felt a pang of guilt go through me as I thought about how hard I had been on him. Compared to him, I was lucky. I could visit my friends when I wanted, I could go down and converse with the ghosts when I felt like it. Hades, on the other hand, had loads and loads of work to do and the only time he actually got company besides me was when Persephone was with him. And she didn't even _like _him.

Realization shot through my head like a bullet.

_What if dad doesn't even like Persephone? _I wondered. _What if the only reason why he kidnapped and married her was because he was…_

The words refused to appear in my head.

_He's a god! _I thought. _Of course he's not…_

I trailed off again. It made way too much sense to be coincidence.

My father never loved Persephone.

She's a jerk who wouldn't know a gentleman if he came out of the ground and kidnapped her on his skull chariot.

The only reason he stays with her in the first place is because he's…

The word finally appeared:

_Lonely._

My father was lonely even from the start. He thought he loved Persephone because he saw her happily running through the meadow as beautiful as she can be, laughing along with her mother, cheerful as ever. But when he took her she showed her not-so-nice side and proved that she was not the right girl for him.

I knew that there was another piece I still needed to fit into the puzzle but I didn't have enough time, because just then Will came running into Chiron's room, breathing hard.

"Chiron!" He wheezed.

We all turned to look at him and the activities director wheeled over to his side.

"What is it my boy? What's wrong?"

Will took a few deep breaths before continuing.

"It's Peleus." Will gasped. "He was shot with one of those sleeping bullets hunters use with lions. The golden fleece was removed from the tree and now…" Gasps erupted around the room. Will coughed and Chiron rubbed his back.

"Now what, Will?" He asked calmly.

Will cleared his throat. "And now demons are attacking. Hundreds."

**Alright, like I said before, sorry about the Sea of Monsters-like ending. Don't worry, it's completely different and has little to do with Thalia's pine. I've decided that I want to come up with more demigods so that I'm not just using the ones from the regular PJO books. Granted, I can come up with them on my own but I think you guys would like to be a part of my story too so instead I'm letting you tell me ideas of some new characters.**

**I'm only going to choose some so not all will make it but I would like you to give me the general info.**

**The character's first, middle, and last name,**

**Their appearance (hair, clothing style, eyes, etc.),**

**How they act around people,**

**And their personalities. Not to mention any background info I need to know about them, for instance if they had a terrible past. Oh! And their parentage. Sorry, almost forgot! Be creative and remember; I don't like the plain old boring half-bloods. Thanks!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, here is the next chapter. I hope you like it!**

_**Nico's POV**_

**A Tad Bit More Important Than a Forgotten Key**

Nobody had a response to Will's news. We all stared at him in awe as if he grew three heads. A long moment of silence filled the room and the only noises we could hear were the commotion of assembling demigods outside the big house and Wills' raspy breaths. Clarisse was the first of us to speak.

"Well aren't you gonna do anything?" She threw her arms in the air before jogging out the doors to go get her armor.

That shook us back into reality.

Chiron immediately began giving orders. "Everybody! Grab your swords and put your armor on. Hurry! We do not have much time!"

We all ran out of the room and the last I saw him, Chiron was removing himself from his wheelchair.

My footsteps pounded on the rocky gravel, blending in with the noises of everyone else. My breathing was panicky and my heart was racing. _Could this be the war the prophecy was talking about? _I wondered as I thundered up the stairs into my cabin.

_Naw, it can't all happen while the main girl in it is unconscious._

I sprinted into my room, threw the door open, and grimaced as I heard the sound of breaking glass when the door hit something. I shook it off and ran to my bedside table. I opened my drawer to get my sword. It was sitting inside, lodged in between my right kneepad and my eyeliner. I grabbed all three before running over to my bed where the rest of my armor was. I hauled it on as fast as humanly possible and turned to go. My only mirror was sitting next to the door, a huge crack down the middle and pieces missing from the bottom left hand corner. I didn't care too much about the mirror itself but the glass was a safety hazard. I bent down and scooped up the pieces, careful not to scratch myself. I looked up to make sure there weren't any other loose ones and groaned when I saw my reflection.

My friggin' eyeliner was dripping again.

I wiped at it with my hand but it only smeared and made me look even worse. I let out a growl of annoyance before reaching up to try to fix it again. An ear piercing scream shattered all thoughts of my appearance and I took off out the door without even a second glance at the shattered remains of, what used to be, my mirror.

I followed the parade of demigods down past the cabins, the dining pavilion, and the big house, over to the top of half-blood hill where everyone was clustered. I could faintly see past the kids and what I saw did not look good. Hundreds upon hundreds of demons were assembled just outside where the magical boundary line usually begins. There were about five times as many of them as campers. I caught up with Percy and Annabeth. They were standing side by side to the left of Chiron who, in his horse form with an arrow already notched on his bow, looked very threatening. His eyebrows were furrowed and he had a determined expression on his face that looked identical to the on that Mr. D was wearing only a few feet away. Everyone was staring in amazement at the large gathering of demons.

"What's going on?" I asked Percy.

He shook his head. "I have no earthly idea."

Annabeth sighed. "Maybe Jack knows."

A man who I had never seen before approached Chiron. He had regular brown hair that was drenched in sweat and huge bushy eyebrows that were so low they nearly touched his eyes. He had on golden armor that was scratched and scarred from years of use. He stood up as tall as he could and cleared his throat to get the centaur's attention.

"Chiron sir, when are we going to attack?" He asked impatiently.

"I… I don't think it's necessary, Jack. Look." Chiron pointed to all of the demons just outside the boundary line. Hundreds of monsters were gathered outside camp and still, nobody was making a move to fight even though_ they_ were fighting and shooting with everything they had.

And the reason for that?

They weren't fighting, at us.

No, the large group of man eating monsters was and shooting with everything they had, at themselves.

They had formed two large groups. One was set up a few yards away from the camp while the other group had their backs to us, fighting them. Not one demon was concerned in the least about us and we just sat there stupidly, swords at the ready, without even a squirrel to try to kill.

A few kids cleared their throats out of pure boredom but Chiron shushed them quickly. We had never seen anything like this before. Demons were known to work together. But here we saw Dracaenae battling Telekhines, Stymphalian Birds up against Laistrygonians, a Chimera was even lunging at a Hydra; it was an all out, monster versus monster, war.

We watched for a few more moments in silence as fangs were bared and sandy monster dust was tossed around in the air. Some kids began to sit down to watch the fight. Others cheered for whichever team they thought might win. I was about to yell some pep talk advice to a losing hellhound when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I turned around and saw Chiron standing behind me, his brown eyes focusing on the scene before us, full of anxiety and bafflement.

"Yes Chiron?" I asked, turning so that I could face him.

He sighed and bent down as low as he could in horse form. "Nico I need you to do me a favor." He began in a low whisper.

I nodded and he continued, his eyes straying to the fight every few seconds.

"I need you to go over to the big house and get the body transforming shirt that you saw me working with in the attic a few hours ago. I would get it myself but I need to watch this in case the demons decide to turn on us. I'm going to get someone to put the shirt on, make themselves a demon, sneak into the enemy lines, and see if they can figure out what's going on. Would you get it for me?"

I nodded. "Sure Chiron, no problem."

"Thanks Nico. Be back quick." He took off in a jogging trot over to where some younger campers were throwing stones and pebbles at the monsters.

I walked off towards the big house, smiling at the weirdness of it all. I mean, what are the odds that you are gonna have two teams fighting in front of you that both usually hate you. It was almost funny.

Almost.

I got to the porch steps and I walked up the first one. For some reason it was wet and slippery and not at all like a normal front porch step should be. So naturally I slipped and fell back on the dirty ground, right on my butt. I let out a huff of my breath so that I didn't completely lose it, before I tried to lift myself up. It was about then that I noticed the brown muddy footprints leading inside the front doors.

They did not look like they had been there for long.

I swallowed a gulp and pulled my sword out, ready to stab anyone (or anything) that was in there. I pushed on the door and it creaked open making an eerie sound that I hadn't noticed it made before.

The main room of the big house was exactly like it had looked a few minutes ago when I had been in it learning the prophecy. A couch was set up to the right of the door and every table in the entire room was stocked high with papers, battle plans, and other junk. A single lamp was glowing with a little bit of Greek fire and it seemed to give off the least amount of light possible. I tiptoed through the main room, over to the hallway that led to the trap door for the attic. My breathing was fast and nervous and I could've sworn I could hear slower, calmer breaths coming from somewhere else in the house. I got to where the staircase was for the attic and nearly wet myself when I saw that the ladder was already pulled down and that the muddy footprints went all the way up. I gulped and made my breaths as slow as possible; trying to be quiet so that I could hear what was going on. Whatever was up there was making scuffling noises as it moved about the room and its breathing was all weird. I took a deep breath before carefully moving so that I was behind the staircase.

Whatever goes up must come down.

The thing continued moving around, touching and fiddling with things, I'm sure, until suddenly it just stopped.

"_I know you're there._" A raspy voice whispered.

A shiver went down my spine and my vision became fuzzy. I couldn't talk or move. All I could do was hope that I had just knocked myself out when I fell off the step and I will soon wake up to find that I'm still laying on the gravel. But I knew after three years of being a demigod, that that was very unlikely. The thing upstairs was dead silent and I knew that it wasn't coming down until I did something.

"Reveal yourself." I said, trying to sound tough but my voice wavered halfway through so I came off sounding quite nervous.

Nothing happened and I just sort of stood there like an idiot until the thing moved.

I was somewhat expecting it to say something before it tried to come down and attack me but it did the last thing I expected it to do.

It ran down the stairs faster than any human ever could.

The ladder shook and creaked but whatever it was didn't seem to care. It sprinted down the hallway, as a big red blur and I couldn't tell for the life of me what it was. Something white was in it's hands but I couldn't quite identify it. A loud clanging noise echoed around the room as the demon thundered off, and more muddy footprints were left behind for me to slip on. When the demon was finally gone I tried to calm my nerves enough to investigate. I was shaking as I slowly made my way over to where it had run through. Its footsteps were still wet and I bent down to touch one. The mud was still fresh which didn't make sense to me considering it never rained at camp half blood unless it was absolutely necessary. The demon must have come from the outside world, not the woods. I took, what seemed like, my fifteenth deep breath today and turned around. The ladder to the attic was coated in mud and I new that I had to be careful climbing it. I walked over though and placed my first foot on the step. If I was careful I would be able to get up without slipping but I was known to be a bit clumsy so I knew I had to be overcautious. I placed my second foot on the same step and whimpered I slid around a little bit. After regaining my composure I carefully placed my next foot on, then the next, and the next, and so on. Finally I made it up and I breathed a sigh of relief. I stepped to the side of where the footprints were and walked over to where I had seen Chiron working with the shirt a few hours ago. The table where it should've been was completely empty and a sense of dread washed over me. I ran closer and moved papers around to try to find it. I frantically looked under every table, searching every where close to it.

"No." I said angrily.

"No, no, no!"

I ran around the room on a mad hunt, not caring when I slipped on the mud. The shirt was nowhere to be seen and I knew that I was to blame for this. I suddenly realized what the demon must've been holding on its way out.

"NO!" I yelled stomping hard on the ground.

A shot of pain went up my foot and the floorboard shuddered violently but I didn't care. I knew I had failed. Failed Chiron, failed everyone. I could've prevented the shirt from being stolen but instead I allowed one of the most important Greek artifacts to be pulled from our possession. I sat down on the floor with my back to the staircase opening. Dionysus would be furious with me. Chiron would pretend he wasn't but I would know that he secretly was.

My eyes filled with tears but I dismissed them, for they were a characteristic of weakness. Instead I buried my head in my hands (which actually isn't much better) and took yet more deep breaths. My eyesight was fuzzy and my head hurt. My butt was still in pain from my fall and my leg ached from when I stomped it on the ground. I had no idea what to do so I just sat there looking pitiful. I didn't know how I was going to face Chiron after I let the shirt go like that so I got up and looked around for an object that might help us in another way. Aphrodite's love scarf was sitting on a table and I attempted to half smile as I remembered the story that Percy had told me was behind that. A spiky motorcycler's glove was next to the scarf and when I put it on it immediately turned into a bronze sword.

"Cool." I said out loud, but replaced it because I liked my sword better.

Next to the glove was a white ring with a card in front of it that said _Hera's engagement ring_. I didn't want to know what that would do to you if you put it on so I left it be. Another item that I found cool was a small blue sphere with an orange button in the middle. I pressed the button and the sphere opened up to reveal a huge first aid kid with everything you would ever need for an injury at battle. I pressed the orange button again and it closed. I continued looking around the room for things to use but none of them seemed appropriate for the current situation. I sighed and sat on the ground again. It was no use; I would have to admit my failure to Chiron. I groaned and stared over at the oracle's stool. Sometimes I envied the old oracle. She had never had to do anything, just sit in the same place and sprout prophecies for all eternity until Rachel came to take her spot. It seemed like an easy enough job, and if I hadn't seen all the downsides to it then I would almost want it. But the old oracle was gone now. All that remained on her stool was… Something sparkly?

I got up and walked over to examine it. It wasn't the bit of monster dust that I was going to say was up there. Instead there was piece of cloth. At first I was hoping that it was the body changing shirt but then I remembered that the shirt wasn't sparkly or gold. I picked up the cloth (which was surprisingly heavy) and immediately I felt better. The pain in my leg and my bottom faded and my drowsiness left me completely. My hunger for food was gone and instead came hunger for revenge on whatever had stolen the shirt. I felt myself practically glowing as the paper cut that I had gotten on my finger faded away.

_It's the Golden Fleece. _I realized. _The demon that took it left it in here! _I jumped up excitedly and walked carefully over to the steps, avoiding the mud. I walked down them carefully, a smile plastered on my face. When I got to the bottom I walked eagerly towards the door and when I got out the door I bounded off towards half blood hill. When I got there the last remaining demons were fighting. A group of Hyperborean Giants were lined up in front of camp, looking like they were actually trying to _protect _us from the other monster army. Chiron was having a conversation with the man named Jack when I go to him.

"Chiron!" I cried, skidding to a stop, inches from his middle.

He turned and looked at me. "Yes Nico, do you have the shirt?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm sorry. It was stolen when I got there. Whoever took it left a path of muddy footprints though. But I _do _have the Golden Fleece. Whoever took the shirt also took the fleece. They forgot it on the oracles' stool."

Both Chiron's and Jack's eyes widened when they saw the golden pelt in my arms.

"Well go put it in the tree, boy!" Yelled Jack.

I followed his instructions and ran over to the tree where Peleus still lay unconscious. The bark was already turning dark and the bullet hole at the bottom was beginning to ooze. I placed the Fleece on Peleus for a second or two. He awoke with a start and his green irises stared at me in wonder. I took the hide off of him and placed it carefully on its original branch. The pine gained color almost immediately. All the demigods turned to look as the tree slowly lost its brownish tinge and the bullet hole closed. The demons close to the boundary line were magically pushed away and they all ran off as soon as they saw what was going on. Soon the only evidence that a fight had even taken place was all of the monster dust on the ground and the fact that a single demon remained on the field. He looked like a normal person, his hair was dirty blonde and his clothes were normal, but his skin was purple. He smiled and it showed a row of razor sharp teeth. I had seen him fighting as one of the monster defenders. He waved at all of us and the Aphrodite kids waved back all girly-like.

"Baby, baby, baby, oh!" He cried in an angelic voice before running off with all of the other demons.

"What do you know," Rachel said, suddenly next to me. "Aphrodite was telling the truth."

**I hope you all enjoyed it. So far I haven't gotten any suggestions for characters. I could really use a personality for three characters. One's named Erica, the other's Sabrina, and the last one's named Todd. If you have any ideas please tell me cause' I'm stuck! Preciate it,**

**-Mindrider**


	12. Chapter 12

**Alright, sorry I haven't updated in a while. I didn't feel like it and then I had camp and – well, I know you don't want to hear about this. Here's the next chapter. I'll warn you ahead of time. It's not the most interesting chapter. I kind of had to introduce Jack and make Clarisse more intimidating so that's why it's not as good. In other news, I got a beta so my commas should **_**finally **_**be placed correctly. I know, I'm terrible, with, those ( c(: ). I hope you like it!  
**

_**Nico's POV**_

**Thanks, I Get My Great Comebacks from My Dad**

We didn't have too much time to think before the next surprise happened. The Ares kids that Chiron had sent into the woods came tumbling out, scraped and battered. We all looked at them in surprise, for everyone had forgotten that they were still there. They stumbled across the boundary line and stood in front of us. The looks on their faces were of pure horror, which struck me as odd considering they were all children of Ares. The lead girl, whom I recognized as a newer, but fierce, camper named Virel, had a red sports bag with a picture of a megaphone under which the words _Goode High_were written.  
She pulled her stringy hair out of her eyes and wiped the blood off her forehead before turning to Chiron. "I know you told us to keep any evidence where it was originally, but the demons came through and almost stampeded this." She said in her gruff, low voice. "It wasn't too far from the opening of the woods and we marked where it was with a stick. If you want to see it we can show you." She handed the bag to Chiron and he held it up for all of us to see. Rachel and Percy almost immediately gasped and we all turned to them.  
Annabeth crossed her arms. "What is it? Come on, spit it out." She looked annoyed that they knew something she didn't. It also didn't help that the two who knew it were Percy and Rachel.  
"It's…" Percy stuttered before trailing off.  
"Kelli's cheerleading bag," finished Rachel.  
"Kelli?" Asked Chiron, examining it.  
"An Empousa We ran into her a few years ago when I started my year in Goode." Percy explained, finally able to form sentences.  
"An Empousa, huh?" Said an icy voice from behind me.  
I turned around to see the man named Jack that everyone else seemed to know. He walked over to where Chiron was and snatched the bag from him. He fingered it with his large muscled hands, not even seeming to notice the steely look the centaur was giving him. It was only the first time I'd met him, but I already didn't like him. His personality was pushy and gruff, and his face was cruel looking. I crossed my arms toughly over my chest and glared at him, trying to catch his attention.  
Unfortunately, it worked.  
"That's a pretty big glower for such small boy." He laughed as his dark silver eyes glinted.  
Ignoring his insult, I barked, "I think Chiron was holding that." I was proud when my voice came out so fierce I could've scared myself away.  
Jack just laughed. "Careful kid, don't go picking fights with every guy you see." He turned back to examine the bag while Chiron gave me an appreciative smile.  
I wasn't done yet.  
"I only pick fights with the guys I know I can beat."  
Jack looked up again, slower this time, as if sizing my insult. Percy nudged me. An Ares kid across the circle from me shook his head.  
"You think you can beat me, Wuss-Skull?" He asked, a slow smile forming on his lips, a hard glare in his eyes.  
I matched his glare easily. "No," I said standing up as tall as I could, "I _know_I can beat you."  
Jack smiled crookedly, his perfectly white teeth showing through his lips. He bent down to my level and looked me square in the eye. His silver iris's glowed and reminded eerily of the goddess Artemis. His bushy, downturned eyebrows made him look like a Hephaestus camper.  
"Look punk," he whispered. "I don't like your attitude-"  
|"Well I don't like yours." I said, cutting him off.  
His half smile disappeared, and his glare became harder. "You may think that you can go around bossing whoever you want, boy. But I ain't a wimp."  
"Are you sure?" I asked pretending to examine him. "Cuz' on a first impression, you sure strike me as one."  
Jack let out an aggravated snarl and grabbed me by the collar of my favorite skull T-shirt. He rammed me backwards against a tree. I moaned as my back collided with the trunk. His face was inches from mine as his eyes were practically burning holes in my pupils.  
"Listen you idiot." He hissed. "I don't give a hoot about any of you dorks. I'm only here because I have to be, so do the world a favor and shut your freakin' trap before I do it for you." His arm veins were pulsing and his sweaty face was as red as Apollo's chariot. I bared my teeth, but was silent. I hated this guy, and I knew I always would. Something about him just drove me mad. My heart was thundering in my chest and I wanted to pound him with all my heart. But, unfortunately, I couldn't because just then Will Solace came running up the hill, out of breath like before. It caused me to lose focus just long enough to allow Jack to get an easy shot at my jaw.  
"AHH, you IDIOT!" I grasped my throbbing face.  
Percy came over to see if I was okay but everyone else had their attention on a breathless Will. Chiron gave Jack one last warning glare before going over to help the kid catch his breath. I could've sworn I saw a hint of a smirk on Jack's face as Percy helped me walk over to the group. Eventually, Will was able to talk.  
"It's Laina." He said after a moment or two. "She's about to wake up. We need you there, Chiron, in case she isn't completely healed."  
Chiron nodded, and we all jogged down the hill towards the big house. The muddy footprints were still there, but nobody was paying them too much attention. Chiron and Will walked through the doors. We all made to follow, but Will stuck his head out before we could get inside.  
"Er, sorry guys," He announced, looking from person to person, "We aren't allowed to let any people other than the necessary doctors in until she wakes up."  
A groan went around throughout the group, and Jack cursed. I saw an eight year old walk by, and I glared at the man. He smiled and cursed again.  
When this whole Laina mess was over, I was _so_going to kill that guy.  
Will closed the door, and we all found a place to sit down and wait.  
I was just getting ready to go back to my cabin out of boredom when Clarisse, Chris, Conner, and Travis all bombarded me.  
"What do you want?" I asked, knowing that anything involving both Clarisse and the Stoll brothers couldn't be good.  
The daughter of Ares spoke up first. "We want information, di Angelo. What else?"  
She stood in front of me, hands on her hips, her brown eyes looking fiercer than ever. I crossed my arms and stared up at her before deciding that I didn't look menacing enough and standing up. "What sort of _information_?" I asked.  
Clarisse sighed and stared at me as if I was a piece of gum on her shoe. "You really don't get it, do you, Death Boy?"  
I cocked an eyebrow. "Get what?"  
She sighed. "Let me see if I can help you figure this out on your own."  
I rolled my eyes but let her continue.  
"You didn't _seriously_think I hugged you earlier because I'm a nice person, did you di Angelo?"  
I shook my head with probably a little too much force; my neck cracked. "No, don't worry. You're still mean and heartless as ever to me."  
Clarisse laughed, reminding me freakishly of Jack. "Look, I gave you that hug to-what's the expression?-'soften you up'."  
"Well congrats. You turned it literal."  
"Shut up, Ghost Brain."  
I smiled.  
"Nico, think. Why would _I_, the almighty daughter of Ares, need to soften _you_, the wimpy son of Hades, up?"  
I thought for a moment. "So that you can turn me into butter and eat me like you do with all of the other boys you pretend to hate but secretly love." I smiled, and she glared at me.  
She continued through gritted teeth. "That has to be the worst comeback that I've ever heard in my life Dead-in-the-head. _Percy_ could do better than that."  
"It just represents your cannibal-like behavior. Don't worry; it's nothing to be ashamed of. Not."  
Clarisse crossed her arms. "Look, idiot, I gave you that hug because I want information out of you. All of us do." She motioned to the Stoll brothers and Chris behind her.  
"And what sort of information do you seek, my darling Clarisse?" I asked, trying to look innocent.  
She practically snarled at me and grasped Chris's hand. "We want to know about your father, numbskull. Why he's refusing to have mercy on any of the newly arriving dead. Not to mention why he's crying all the time."  
I studied Clarisse's face. "And why, may I ask, do _you_care?"  
She uncrossed her arms and her expression turned slightly serious. "I consider Hades the second toughest god next to Ares." She began, her eyes not softening a bit. "And to hear about him acting like such a slipshod is not making me feel too highly of Ares. If the second toughest god is weeping like a wuss, then it's definitely possible for the toughest to. I-" She stopped herself. "– _we_ – want to know why." She concluded her sentence with a beady stare.  
I yawned and pretended to check my invisible watch. "Oh Clara, what in this world makes you think that I'll tell you any of this?"  
She laughed. "Well, unless you want me to tell Laina about the time that you tried to summon a ghost using your own spit and all of the spirits-"  
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you," I said quickly before she could finish.  
She smiled, and I rolled my eyes. "Ok," I said quietly, "You have to promise not to tell anyone else. It makes him seem even wimpier than people think now."  
Clarisse smiled and moved closer, sensing embarrassing gossip. "Deal."  
I sighed and took a few seconds to muster the sort of courage that I needed to get before revealing such an embarrassing secret. "My dad misses Persephone. He gets lonely when she's not with him, and this time, for some unknown reason, it was just too much. I have no idea why, and to be quite honest, I don't really care. He's just being a big crybaby." I stopped talking and watched her face to see her reaction.  
She looked at me for a few seconds to try to make sure that I was telling the truth. Eventually she talked. "Alright, either you're a really great actor or Hades is now officially the wimpiest on my list."  
I smirked. "Hate to say it, but it's definitely the second one. I'm a terrible actor."  
Travis piped up from behind her. "Horrible, Clarisse. He can't even tell a white lie."  
I crossed my arms and was about to give him a glare when I remembered that it was true.  
Clarisse sighed and pondered what we had said. She tapped her foot and looked off into space as we all began to get jumpy. Finally, she spoke.  
"That was _totally_not worth giving you a hug." She turned on her heel and stalked away.  
"Ugh!" I yelled after her. "You splashed a water balloon on my head; it doesn't count as a hug!"  
She raised a dismissive hand, and Chris gave a half smile.  
"I wouldn't expect her to care." He walked off after her, and I was left with just the Stoll brothers who quickly turned their attention to the Aphrodite girl with a cell phone sticking temptingly out of her pocket.  
Connor practically drooled. "I've been needing a new phone." He said before tiptoeing away, Travis at his heels.  
I sighed and sat down next to Katie Gardener on the porch step. The mud on it had dried up and it wasn't slippery to be on top of anymore. Katie was doing a hand game with the Aphrodite girl who had the cell phone.  
"I would put your phone a little deeper in your pocket." I warned her quietly.  
She messed up the game before turning to me, her hazel eyes flashing with boredom. "And why should I listen to you, Dead Boy?" She asked, brushing a lock of her shoulder length brown hair behind her ear.  
"Because the Stoll brothers have caught sight of it." I said simply.  
Her eyes widened, and she turned suddenly towards the small set of trees behind her where the Hermes boys were camped. She gave them a warning glance before turning back to Katie to start the game again. Travis mouthed a curse word at me and I smiled, used to the teen language  
"Do you know when they're going to let us in to see Laina?" I asked Katie, who, as a child of Demeter, was usually much friendlier than most Aphrodite girls.  
"No idea," she said simply, concentrating on her game, "Nobody has come out to tell us anything."  
I looked over at the door, hoping someone would be there. I lucked out, and an Apollo camper I had never seen before was standing against the door frame, a first aid kit in his hands.  
"Nico," He began in a loud, leader-like voice. "We need you inside. She's going in and out of consciousness, and we need to know when she's closer to life versus death."  
I jumped up off of the step and walked over to him. He looked around my age, had dirty blonde hair and pale blue eyes. His face was soft and friendly, but I could tell from his voice that he could be fierce or serious if need be. He flipped his long hair out of his eyes and we walked together into the big house.  
"I'm Todd," he said once we were inside.  
"Nico."  
He nodded, and we were quiet for a few moments as we maneuvered our way around the junk in the main room.  
"So, she's not conscious yet?" I asked.  
"Nope," he said sadly, "Not yet. She's getting better, from what we can see. She's regaining color. Aphrodite's blessing helped with that."  
"So at that moment she's only a daughter of Aphrodite?" I asked, remembering the conversation we had earlier.  
"And Dionysus," he confirmed, "He gave her a blessing a few minutes ago. It was kind of weird. All of the beauty that she had inherited from Aphrodite went away when he gave her the blessing. Almost as though his magic had taken her magic's place." He shook his head. "The healing speed doubled though so we know that she didn't lose it or anything."  
I nodded slowly.  
"Oh, and Nico," he said, walking down the hallway that led to the attic.  
"Yes?"  
"Your eyeliner is dripping."  
I wiped my eyes, embarrassed, as he pushed open a door.  
The infirmary did not look like how it had when I had been there for a minor fighting injury a few months back. All of the beds were pushed against the wall, except one, with doctors crowded around it. Campers rushed this way and that, getting the supplies needed. Dionysus and Aphrodite were both pacing the room next to each other, talking in nervous tones. I walked over to where Chiron was directing a group of campers, and he ushered me closer.  
"There you are, Nico," Chiron said, sounding very rushed and nervous, "I need you to sit down and concentrate on her."  
"Yes, sir." I said quickly. I sat in a chair and was about to close my eyes when a question popped into my mind.  
"Wait," I began.  
Chiron turned back to me. "What is it, Nico? Hurry."  
"I thought she was a goddess," I stated, "Goddesses don't die."  
Chiron's tail swished back and forth nervously. "Because she is technically a half blood, it is possible that she could still die. We aren't sure yet."  
"Oh." I said and closed my eyes.  
It wasn't too hard to concentrate on her. She was only a few feet away from me. Her life seemed to flash before my eyes, and I saw a small glimpse of what she looked like as a small mortal child; she had long brown hair and deep brown eyes. She didn't look pretty or ugly, sort of a mix between. She had a large smile that seemed to cover her whole face, and one of her front teeth was missing. She was laughing and holding up an ice cream cone, a friend of hers beside her. Seeing it made me smile, and I was disappointed when the image soon faded away.  
A new one appeared, and in this one she was older. She was wearing a short purple dress, her hair done up all pretty. Another girl I recognized was standing next to her, and they both had a flower pinned to the tops of their dresses. The second girl was Rachel, and they were both at a sixth grade graduation, Rachel's second. It was kind of funny to be watching this, knowing not only that the happy girl in the purple dress was dying but also that the redhead next to her was sixteen and just very short for her age. They both looked so happy compared to how they looked now, that the smile that I had felt on my face slowly left.  
Finally, I saw what Chiron had been asking me to look at: Laina's life. It was sort of like a thermometer; the closer to life she was the hotter the thermometer would be, the farther, the colder. Watching peoples' lifelines was sort of like imagining the months of the year. It's one of those things that I can see, that if another child of Hades were to pop up then they would see differently. Maybe they would see it as a speed gauge on a car. When she was closer to life the little arrow would go one way and when she was farther than the other. It's a hard concept to explain, and I don't blame you if you have no idea what I'm talking about. After all, you're no child of Hades.  
Basically, I could see if she was dying, and what made me happy was that, from what I could see, she wasn't. Her thermometer was getting hotter and hotter and soon it was approaching the temperature that would give her a fever. She was getting better, slowly but surely, and soon would be awake. I smiled and let go of my focus. The thermometer disappeared, and I caught one last glimpse of her with her missing tooth and ice cream cone and then it was all gone.  
I opened my eyes to see Chiron staring at my face expectantly, waiting to hear what I had to say. Most of the Apollo kids had stopped working to look at me too, and I blushed, not used to the attention.  
"She's doing great," I concluded, "She should be conscious any minute."  
A cheer erupted throughout the room. Soon the Apollo kids went back to work, eager to hurry the process as much as they could. Chiron moved to the other side of her and I was able to catch a glance of her. She was still covered in dirt and golden blood, but I knew that she wasn't as nearly as bad as she looked. Her face had that same look to it as the younger one had. Not too pretty, not too ugly. It was cool seeing the resemblance but I thought goddesses were supposed to be beautiful.  
I shrugged, happy that she was going to survive. After a few moments of watching, Todd let out a happy squeal.  
"She's waking up!" He cried loudly.  
We all stopped what we were doing to crowd around the bed. The kids from outside filed in, and they all ran over. We watched intently as her eyelids twitched. The room was silent. The only thing we could hear was her raspy breathing. We watched without blinking as her eyes slowly opened, still dirty from her fall. When they completely exposed, I saw that they were the same brown that they had been in the old memory.  
We were all too stunned to talk. Even Chiron seemed at a loss for words. She looked around the circle giving each person a look over before moving to the next. Finally her eyes rested on me. She studied me for a moment before a slow smile spread over her lips. I gave a small smile back, slightly weirded out.  
"Um, hi." I said quietly, blushing a little bit.  
She snorted and it sounded exactly like one of Dionysus's snorts. "Dude," She said sarcastically. "Your eyeliner is about to drip into your mouth."

**And so they meet.**

**I've seen better first impressions. Soon it will pick up and they will get to know each other. That last part was SO much fun to type. I love goofy characters. I know the part about Nico imagining the thermometer is confusing. What I was trying to explain was sort like how I sometimes can actually imagine the songs on my iPod. Even though they are all right after each other I remember them in groups and I can actually picture the groups. Same thing with the months of the year, except I use colors. Like, August is a pinkish orange while December is a grayish blue. I don't know if anyone else does this but if you do then that's what I was trying to describe. If you don't then just forget the long paragraph and picture a thermometer.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, this chapter has not been beta'd yet. I put it up, simply because I felt bad that I hadn't updated in awhile. When it gets beta'd I'll replace it, but please don't accuse me of putting commas incorrectly because, believe me, I know. I'll have the better version up soon, I hope. R&R please!**

_**Laina's POV**_

**You Know, Most Goddesses Don't Have to Beg**

The first thing I saw when I woke up was a group of people.

Like, fifteen of them, all crowded around my bed, trying to catch a glimpse of me. All of their eyes were plastered to my face. I felt like some sort of mutant rat being studied by scientists. They seemed to be waiting for me to do something and I didn't like the feeling of it. I looked at each person one by one, trying to figure out what to say. Half of them were holding medical supplies and I wondered who was hurt. Suddenly my neck was struck by a burning sensation and the answer to my question hit me like a slap.

I was the one who was hurt.

All of my memories came flooding back to me. I was on Starfly the Pegasus when a bullet came out of nowhere and caught him on the side. Another then came and hit me in the neck. That would explain the burning. _But if __**I**__ survived…___my thoughts trailed off as I looked around the room for Rachel. My eyes blurred when I moved them too fast so I decided to look at each person in turn, slowly so that I wouldn't dizzy myself.

My gaze moved from a blonde boy with pale blue eyes to a brown haired girl covered in sweat and dirt. I continued looking around the circle, hoping to find Rachel but having no avail. I swept my eyes quickly past a boy with black hair but then brought them back as the weird sight made its way into my mind. His eyes seemed to be bleeding black blood. It was the weirdest thing ever and I felt a smile coming on when it finally occurred to me what it was_._

_He must have no idea that it's there._ I realized.

My smile got bigger and he gave a tentative smile back, blushing slightly.

"Um, hi." he said quietly, his voice rising at the end as if it were a question.

I snorted at his unawareness and his face adopted an even more confused look. I decided to go right out and tell him the truth.

"Dude, your eyeliner is about to drip into your mouth." I said with a smirk on my lips.

His expression switched from confused to embarrassed, and his already red face turned even redder.

"Argh!" he groaned and stalked out of the room, his shoulders hunched up in an aggravated manner.

I giggled. A man with short brown hair and a scruffy brown beard moved to a different part of the bed, his footsteps making clonking noises on the floor.

"Laina." he said quietly, lowering his head as if he were bowing.

The others around me did the same. It was beginning to weird me out when I remembered the story that was supposedly about me.

_I'm a goddess?_

The thought creeped me out and I decided to push it away. I continued looking around for Rachel, my eyesight beginning to get better.

"Where's Rachel and Affie – er - Aphrodite?" I asked once all of their heads were back up.

A small opening appeared in the group and two girls stepped through, a pudgy man at their heels. Rachel's face was dirty and tearstained but the sight of her alive caused a happy sob to trap itself in my throat.

"Rachel." I whispered. "You're alive!"

She smiled and a tear trickled down her face. "Thanks to you."

She hugged me quickly before letting Aphrodite and the man come over. They both had shocked expressions on their faces and they stared at me in disbelief.

"I cannot believe she's alive." said the pudgy man. He stared into my eyes and his purple iris's captivated me. He hopped up onto a stepping stool that was conveniently placed at my bedside and I was able to see him better. His long black hair went down to about his shoulders and his face was wide and chubby. His eyes were as open as they could be and his mouth formed a small 'O' as he examined me.

"Laina…" he said in a hushed tone. "I'm so glad you're back!" He leaned over and gave me a hug. He smelled like a mixture between grapes and wet horses and the scent overwhelmed me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

His grip on me tightened before he leaned his head back to look at me. "My… My girl, you don't remember me?" His voice sounded choked and I could tell that I had asked a wrong question.

"Well…" I trailed off.

The doctor with the beard piped up from behind him. "She fell into the Lethe, Dionysus. She doesn't remember a thing."

"But Chiron," cried Dionysus. "She _must _remember me."

The man named Chiron shook his head. "Her only memories are the ones that she got after the beginning of her second life."

Dionysus pouted. "I thought she would gain back her memories once she heard the story."

"No." Chiron sighed. "She will only gain her powers."

Aphrodite stepped up from behind them both. "But that doesn't matter. Right now, the thing that's important is that she survived at all. No matter what she remembers."

Dionysus nodded sadly.

"Hold on a second." I said quickly. My voice sounded weird but I guessed that it was just a side effect of the painkiller medicine or something.

Everyone turned to look at me. "So you guys are all the characters from the Percy Jackson books I read?"

"What?" Asked a brunette boy with green eyes.

"Yes." Chiron said quickly.

"Oh… Well then I guess that means you're a centaur."

Chiron moved so that I could see his legs. Sure enough, there were four of them.

"Hold on a minute." said green eyes. "What Percy Jackson books? What is she talking about?"

Chiron's face turned anxious and he rocked from hoof to hoof. "Not now Percy. I'll explain later."

Percy's eyes widened. "Does this have anything to do with why you didn't let me go to school this year?" He stomped his foot. "Chiron!"

"Calm down Percy." said the centaur. "I promised that I would explain things to you and I will. Just not right now. At the moment we have other things on our hands." He turned back to me. "Laina, why don't you go back to sleep and in a few days we'll give you a tour of camp."

I shook my head to clear it. My thoughts were all spinning as if on a merry-go-round and I felt as though this was all some big dream.

"What? Chiron, I have no idea what's going on. All I know is that I'm supposed to be some legend goddess. But I can't be one. I don't have any powers or anything. As much as I wish that I wasn't, I'm a regular mortal."

A man who was sitting down on a chair on the other side of the room yawned and we all looked over at him. "Come on girl." he said sounding bored. "Get a grip on yourself. You. Are. A. Goddess. Get used to it. How else would you explain the fact that you got past the boundary line?"

Chiron crossed his arms. "Now Jack, go easy on her. She just woke up in a room with a bunch of people staring at her, telling her she's a Greek goddess. She is obviously going to be a little confused." He turned his head back to me and his tone became softer. "Laina dear, you don't have your powers yet because you don't have every god's blessing. In fact, at the moment you only have Aphrodite's and Dionysus's." He motioned to my arm and I looked down. Clasped on my wrist was a bracelet with large circular charms on it. Two were lit up. One was pink and it had _Aphrodite _written in cursive letters on the front, and the other was purple and read _Dionysus._ All of the others were just plain old silver.

I touched Dionysus's charm and it flashed white before regaining its purple color. The god of wine himself walked over to me.

"Sweetheart, hold out your arm."

I did as he said.

"Now create a vine."

I looked from his face, to my arm, and then back to his face again.

"What?"

He smiled. "Sprout a vine from that potted plant over there." He pointed to a small fig tree in the corner of the room next to the man named Jack.

I pointed my finger at the plant and closed my eyes to concentrate.

Nothing happened.

I looked back at my supposed father.

"It didn't work." I said wisely.

He let out a puff of breath before letting go of my arm. "That's because you have to keep your eyes open, dummy. You can't expect a plant to appear if you're not even looking at the place where you want it to go." He rolled his eyes. "I remember you as being much smarter."

"Hey!" I protested. "In the books you sure didn't strike _me_ as being especially intelligent!"

I expected him to flare his eyes and turn me into a dolphin on the spot but instead he just laughed.

"Oh Laina, I take it back! You are _exactly_ like how I remember you!" He chuckled and helped me aim my arm again. This time I kept my eyes open and concentrated on bringing a vine out of the pot. At first nothing happened but after a moment or two of concentrating I felt a small feeling in my stomach. At first I thought it was just from being so hungry but as I concentrated more and more it began to feel like someone had their hand inside of me and was pulling on my organs. I felt all of the energy from the potted plant inside my veins. I gasped as I realized how similar it was to the feeling that I felt when I was trying to control the ground.

I lost concentration and the feeling left almost immediately. I sighed as Dionysus walked over to the pot and pulled a tiny shrub out of the dirt. He smiled when he saw it and I glared at him.

"Don't worry sweetheart. It gets easier the more you practice."

"Doesn't everything." Jack mumbled under his breath.

"Chiron." Percy said, his voice as hard as ice. "I want to know about these books."

"Percy-" Chiron stuttered.

"Now."

Chiron crossed his arms but clomped over to where Percy was standing. "I would recommend sitting down." He sighed. "This may take awhile."

The group of demigods sat obediently on the white, clinic floor and turned their attention to the uneasy centaur. He took a deep breath before beginning his story.

"I know that you all don't approve of my decision to not allow you to go to school this year." He began, his voice sounding regretful and sad. "I forbade it for everyone except Rachel and refused to tell you why."

Everyone nodded and continued listening.

"There _is _a reason for that. See… ugh. It's just so dangerous and you all would've begged me and begged me and then people would've found out and-"

"Chiron." said a blonde girl who I suspected was Annabeth.

"Right, right." said the centaur. "Back to the story. I kept you all away from school because someone has leaked the secret of the gods existing."

A collective gasp went through the campers and everyone began talking at once.

"That's crazy…"  
"But that means…"

"No more secrecy…"

"We'll all die!"

The voices bounced around the small room and my head felt overflowed. I gripped the sheets tightly and concentrated on keeping my thoughts together. Eventually Chiron raised his hand and everyone stopped talking.

"Shh! You didn't let me finish. People don't know that the stories are actually true. Do any of you remember that Apollo camper that used to go here? The man that never fought and spent his time writing things down in a notebook."

"I remember him." Will groaned with a look of unhappy remembrance on his face. "He never helped to heal anyone. All he did was sit in the corner with his precious little notebook." He grunted and his eyes narrowed. "He went by Rick I believe."

Chiron nodded. "Rick was not the ordinary Apollo camper. That notebook that he was always writing in was not a diary or a journal. It was the place where he kept the manuscript. Where he wrote all about your lives from a single point of view."

"Who's point of view?" asked Katie, entranced in his story.

"Percy's." Chiron answered simply.

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians." I said quietly.

The moment of silence that followed was the longest I had ever heard. Even breathing was momentarily postponed as the truth sunk in to everyone's heads. Nobody talked for what seemed like hours.

Finally Percy broke it.

"There are books about my life?" he asked, his eyes wide with astonishment.

"Five of them." I said louder than before. I listed the names and he nodded in recognition as he matched the happenings with their book titles.

"The Titan's Curse." he said, lost in thought. "Clever."

"So Rick wrote about every single thing that happened to us?" asked Annabeth.

"Yes." said Chiron.

Her face turned a little pink and she turned to me. "Everything?"

I grinned. "Up until _right _after Percy's birthday."

She blushed redder but Percy was still dumbfounded from what we had just told him.

"But hold on." he exclaimed. "What does this have to do with not letting us go to school?"

Chiron stared down at the boy with a look on his face that resembled sympathy. "When Rick wrote those books he didn't exactly make things easy for us. He didn't change any character names and he only slightly changed the other things like settings. If you were to go out into the mortal world as a couple named Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase then it wouldn't take a genius to figure out the truth. Not to mention the people that witnessed some of the scenes in the books. If someone were to remember the fact that they saw a teenager attack a smelly older man on a dock then they might connect it to that scene in the third book. You guys cannot go into the mortal world with such similarities to the characters. If one person figures it out then it could lead to everyone figuring it out. That would not be good." Chiron gave a stressed moan and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Well then why did you let Rachel go?" asked Katie after a moment.

Aphrodite piped up from her chair. "That was my doing. After I heard the most recent prophecy I figured a lot of the lines out almost instantly. I knew who the daughter was and I remembered certain things that led me to figure out where she was."

"What sorts of things did you remember?" asked a boy with downturned eyebrows and big pointy ears.

Aphrodite stared at the ground and avoided everyone's eyes. "Things." she answered quietly. "Anyway, after I figured out where Laina was, I suggested to Chiron that he send a camper out to confirm that it was indeed her."

"And it was?" asked Annabeth.

"Yes. After that she came here. And well, got shot in the neck by an Empousa, from the sound of it."

"Kelli." Rachel and Percy grumbled in unison.

"So what do we do now?" I asked after a moment.

Chiron crossed his arms and tapped his hoof on the ground, thinking. "Well, we just recently found out that you need to get a blessing from each and every god and goddess before you gain the powers back. My guess is that once you get it from every Olympian then, not only will you have every charm on your bracelet lit up, but you will also get a half blood portion of your _own _original powers as well. Your powers being the forces over mortal accomplishments."

I nodded. "So when do I start?"

"Well," he said examining me. "As soon as you're healthy."

I swung my legs out of the hospital bed and stood up on the tiled floor. "I'm healthy now."

Chiron chuckled and walked over to pat me on the back. "Laina, you just got shot in the neck. There is no way that you will be ready to go on a very long and important quest today without even a single lesson in fighting."

I stood up and brushed my dirty hands off on my pants. My neck didn't hurt anymore. The rapid healing thing must have begun to kick in. "If I understood the books correctly, when going out on a quest I get two others with me." I said seriously. "_They _will know how to fight."

Dionysus shook his head. "I don't like it. With a bullet hole in your neck, no way."

"But how else am I going to be healed?" I insisted. "Without the other gods' blessings then my rapid healing skills aren't going to get any better. With only two half blood portions of power in me it's doubtful that I'll be completely healthy for another few weeks and trained and taught for another few years. From the sound of it, this next prophecy about me isn't going to be that long from now. I need to learn, Chiron." I begged. "Please let me leave today!"

I watched his face as emotions switched off. Annoyed and then thoughtful. Tetchy and then resistant. Finally he settled for defeated.

"_Three _days, Laina. You will leave for your quest in _Three _days."

"But-"

"No arguing."

I sighed as he fixed me with a hard stare.

"You are to sleep in the infirmary but you are allowed to wander about the camp as you wish. Do not engage in any games and/or classes, go anywhere alone, or try anything tricky, Laina. Do you understand?"

I gave a feeble nod. "Yes sir." I sighed.

"Be on the lookout for the two others who you would like to accompany you on your quest. Make sure that they are good fighters."

I gave another nod.

"And Laina," He said, allowing a small smile to form on his lips.

"Yes, Chiron?"

"Don't get yourself killed."

I laughed. "Don't worry, I'll do my best."

"Good girl." He said as if I was a dog. "Percy."

"Yes sir?" the dark haired boy said, jumping to attention.

"I want you to stay with Laina at all times. Do not let her out of your sight. If I find out that she's gotten into trouble or been injured I'm blaming it on you."

"I'm not a three year old." I complained.

"Got it sir." Percy said with a mock solute.

Chiron smiled as he clomped out of the room. Dionysus followed on his heels, asking him some question about if he had ever had Sprite, and Aphrodite skipped after them last, blowing a quick kiss in my direction.

When they were gone, the kids on the floor stood up and came over to introduce themselves to me. Percy stuck his hand out first.

"I'm Percy Jackson. Apparently you know a lot about me."

I smiled as I touched his firm and callused hand. "Probably more than you do."

He chuckled.

"I'm Annabeth." said the blonde girl. I shook her hand as well and she smiled, her grey eyes locked on mine.

I was then introduced to the Stoll brothers and some other characters I remembered from the books before I heard some unfamiliar names.

"I'm Lillian." Said a girl with long brown hair and a stomach skinnier than a pencil. "Daughter of Aphrodite."

"Todd." Said a dirty blonde boy with pale blue eyes. "Son of Apollo."

I nodded and smiled but it was the last kid who really amazed me.

His hair was a midnight black and stopped just below his ears. His smile was tentative but attractive and I could totally see him as a lifeguard at the pool. He was wearing oversized jeans, a Yankees baseball cap, and a green sweatshirt, making him look slightly punkish but not mean. All of this was cool but what really stood out were his eyes. They were the most intense blue I had ever seen. They made me feel as if I was surrounded by an electric current.

"Russel." He said shakily. "Son of Zeus." He had a familiar accent but I couldn't place it because he was talking so quietly. He said his words with a look of fear on his face, as if he were afraid that I was going to turn him into a frog or something. He didn't look at my face. I was about to ask him what was up when I thought of a more important question.

"Hold up. I thought Zeus wasn't allowed to have kids until like, last year."

"I was born last year." he said quickly, his accent becoming more pronounced as I heard more of his speech. "The gods purposely used magic to make me older so that Chiron would have more of an army." He told his story frantically is if he were in a rush.

I nodded and turned back to Percy. This kid was really freaking me out.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

Percy thought. "I suppose I can give you a tour of the camp."

I nodded eagerly.

"But first." He motioned to my face.

"What?" I asked after a moment of confusion.

He touched my cheek and when he pulled his finger away it was coated in dirt. "You might want to take a shower. Maybe get some fresh clothes."

I looked down at myself. I was covered in dried mud bits and drops of golden ichor. "Oh yeah." I said quietly.

I was handed an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts. I was then directed to the bathroom where I quickly took a shower. The warm water felt amazing on my gross, dirty skin and I wanted to stay in there forever. I knew I couldn't, though. I had a lot to do to prepare for my quest and I wasn't going to keep Percy waiting. I dried off with a towel and put on the borrowed clothes. It was then that I looked in the mirror and examined my wound.

The Apollo kids had put a waterproof brace on it before I took the shower and it looked freakishly tacky. I groaned and stared at it. It was the most boring shade of yellow and I wished it were at least orange or purple. I shrugged and brushed my fingers through my matted hair before opening the door.

When I walked back into the infirmary everyone had left but Percy, Annabeth, and Jack who was relaxing on his chair. Percy and Annabeth were sitting next to each other on a bench and were laughing at some joke. Annabeth's grey eyes shined and I sighed as I realized how lucky she was to be so pretty. I fingered my Aphrodite charm and it flashed white. If only I were that pretty.

"I'm out." I said to get their attention.

Percy looked over and then did a double take. "Whoa, did you put on makeup or something?"

I gave him a confused look. "What?"

He motioned to a mirror that was hanging up to my right. I gave him one more puzzled glance before turning to see what he was talking about.

"Holy Zeus." I said as soon as I saw myself. "I did _not _look like this a few minutes ago." I squinted at my reflection. My normally flat, brown eyes were now lit up happily and the small zit on my temple was gone. My rat's nest of a ponytail was now straight and smooth like that of the woman in the conditioner commercial. My eyelashes seemed to have doubled in length and I gained a few freckles across my nose.

"What happened to me?" I wondered aloud.

"Maybe the whole goddess thing changes certain characteristics about you." suggested Annabeth.

"That _would_ make sense." I said. "My voice has sounded weird ever since I woke up."

Percy nodded. "That's probably just what it is."

"Yeah, but I could've sworn I looked different in the bathroom." I shook my head. "Maybe I didn't. Maybe I'm just imagining things."

"Or maybe not." said Jack from his chair. "What did you do between the bathroom and talking to Percy now?"

I thought for a moment before walking out the door, back towards the bathroom. "I came out, placed my dirty clothes in this trash can, stepped over this globe, walked into the room, and then fingered my bracelet." I acted out the movements as I went along, pretending to drop something in the bin, stepping over the globe, walking into the room, and then fingering the Dionysus charm.

Percy looked at me. "Well it's gone now."

I looked in the mirror and sure enough I was back to my normal self. As average as always.

"Darn." I said sadly. "I was hoping I would stay that way."

Jack pulled himself off his chair, stretched and then walked over to me. Let me see your bracelet, Grape Girl."

I rolled my eyes before showing him my wrist. He fingered the Aphrodite charm for a moment, feeling its weight in his hand.

"Hmm," I exclaimed suddenly. "That's weird."

"What?" he asked looking up.

"It usually lights up whenever I touch it." I said reaching for the bracelet. "See?" I touched the Aphrodite charm. It lit up just like I expected. Percy and Annabeth both jumped back in surprise.

"Guys, it's just a charm." I said. But somehow I knew it wasn't.

Jack was staring at my face, a smile appearing on his. "I think we've figured out your mysterious attractiveness thing, Miss. Swan face."

"What?"

He led me over to the mirror, his hardened hands positioned on the back of my shoulders. I looked at my reflection and was pleased to find that my good face was back.

"That's so cool!" I said excitedly.

"Touch the Dionysus charm again." Annabeth suggested.

I did as she said and, as we predicted, I lost all of my prettiness. I frowned and touched the Aphrodite charm. "I like this one better."

"Well don't tell Dionysus that." Jack said giving me a light (well he intended for it to be light) punch on the shoulder before walking out of the room.

We stared at my reflection in the mirror for a few more moments before Percy spoke.

"Well I suppose we should go show this to Chiron."

Annabeth and I agreed and we walked out to go find him. I followed them down the hallway into the main room of the big house. For some reason muddy footprints were tracked around on the, already dirty, wood floors.

_Maybe it's a special design. _I thought as I walked. Percy held the door open for Annabeth and I and I thanked him as I walked through. The second I stepped out I gasped.

Standing before me was the place where every Percy Jackson reader dreamed of going;

Camp Half-Blood.

**I hope you guys liked it! Yeah, I know Mr. D's a little ooc in the beginning, but if you lost your daughter for a bunch of millennia and then she suddenly shows up then wouldn't you be happy?**

**Actually you'd be dead, but whatever! By the way, LONGEST CHAPTER! ( : ( : ( :**

**Anywho, thanks to those who favorite'd though a review would make me just as happy (hint, hint). Whoever can guess what Russel's accent is will get a free… Smiley face! Here's a hint: he says the word 'Gecko' as most would say the word 'Geico'. Oh, and congrats if you caught the story name back when Chiron was explaining things to Dionysus. "Her only memories are the ones that she got after the beginning of her second life."**


	14. Chapter 14

**Alright, this is another chapter that hasn't been beta'd. I really don't know what happened to my beta… Anyway, here it is. I figured I should add another disclaimer just in case.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, nor any of its characters (although I do own Nico's eyeliner).**

_**Laina's POV**_

**Wowee, a Training Camp for Serial Killers**

It was exactly how I pictured it.

Green grass stretched out for miles, slightly worn out by the trampling of camper's feet over and over again on the same paths. The sky was bright and blue, and the few clouds that spotted the sky were white and puffy. I smiled. Never in my life had I thought that I would get to see such a nice place as this; with its card table out front, volleyball court down the hill. Hundreds of happy kids, playing and goofing off like children do. It gave off an aura. A happy one, that gave no clue that this place was, and could still potentially be, a war ground.

Dionysus was sitting at his card table, playing with a couple of jumpy satyrs. We walked over, interrupting his argument with a long, blonde haired girl who had apparently bluffed all throughout the entire hand.

"Janine! That's just not fair!" the god of wine exclaimed angrily, slapping his cards face-up on the table.

"But sir." said Janine quietly. "I only bluffed. It's not like I cheated."

Dionysus's face turned red and he glared at poor Janine. After a moment or two she apparently realized what she was in for and yelped before turning to run away. Dad got up off his chair to go chase her. We all stepped in front of him to get his attention away from the poor camper.

"Dad!" I exclaimed, putting his charm on just in time.

"Yes dear?" He sighed. He was obviously angry that we had let the girl get away.

Percy stepped up next to me. "Have you seen Chiron? We need to talk to him."

"No," said Dionysus. "But I'm sure that whatever you can tell Chiron you can tell me."

"Um…" I looked at Annabeth who had her elbow propped up on her other arm and her hand covering her lips. Percy was staring at me expectantly. Apparently I had to take care of this one.

"It's my powers." I sighed, dejectedly. "I can only use one gods' abilities at a time."

Dionysus stared at me some more. "What?"

We told him all about what had happened and how we figured out that the charm bracelet controls everything. When we were finished he walked back inside the big house to retrieve Chiron who was also told the entire story.

"It does make sense." the centaur observed after a few moments of thinking. "Your magical blood was practically cut in half because of the reincarnation."

"But wait." excalimed Annabeth. "Does that mean that she might not even be a goddess in the first place? That she might actually be able to die!"

Dionysus gasped and stared wide eyes at Chiron. "Of course not, right Chiron? She's absolutely, one hundred percent goddess!"

Chiron stuck his lip out in thought. "Well… She's not _one hundred percent _goddess but she has enough godly blood in her to make her immortal. I doubt she could have survived that bullet as a mere mortal. What I wonder is if she will have the same godly powers as you all when she has finished her quest." He stared up at the sky. We were all quiet for a moment, waiting for Chiron to talk. When he didn't, Percy stepped up.

"May we finish our tour now Chiron?" He asked.

He shook out of his daze. "Yes, of course you may. Go on ahead."

Percy and Annabeth led me past the big house, the volleyball courts, and the dining pavilion, over to the big ring of cabins.

Even the books couldn't have described how cool they were. Each and every one of them was different and they had themes portraying the different gods and goddesses. None of them stood out more than any other, for they were all equally ridiculous. Percy led us over to a white one with seashells encrusted on the outside walls. He walked inside. I made to follow but Annabeth stopped me.

"He's just going to get his armor. He has swording after this."

I stepped back and we both waited for Percy to come out. When he did, we walked along the gravel trail for a little while, past all of the cabins. We strolled by the Aphrodite and Dionysus ones and I wondered which one I would stay in. When we passed the Zeus cabin I felt eyes on my back. I turned around and saw the black haired boy with the weird accent staring at me from his porch. He had a large spear in his hands and he was covered from head to toe with armor that much resembled Percy's. Russel, I believe, was his name.

Russel stared at me for a full ten seconds before turning to head where, I assumed, the arena was. He seriously freaked me out.

We passed a big, black cabin with skulls across the front and I knew instantly that it was Hades'.

"I'm just going to see if he wants to join the tour." said Percy. "That okay with you guys?"

"Yeah." I answered. Annabeth nodded in agreement.

He walked in and I heard arguing from inside.

"But Percy, it was mortifying! She thinks I'm a complete and utter dork who can't wear decent eyeliner!"

"I know what she said, dude. But this way you can show off all of your cool swording moves and whoa her."

I could practically hear Nico rolling his eyes. "I'm thirteen, Percy."

"Right now you are."

I heard a snort and they both came walking out the door.

Without the black dripping down his face, Nico didn't look half bad. Of course, he had that extra long haircut that could almost pass him for a girl, and the black skinny jeans even though it was eighty-some-odd degrees outside. He had on a skull shirt and he was carrying his armor along with a big black sword. The second he came within arms length of me an odd chill seemed to spread though the air. I felt the half smile leave my face and I saw Annabeth shiver out of the corner of my eye. Nico's face was a little red. I felt kind of bad for what I said, considering how much it had embarrassed him.

Pft, who am I kidding, no I didn't.

There was an awkward silence as we waited for somebody to talk.

"So, eyeliner boy. See you've got that gunk off your face." I exclaimed, finally. Nico turned tomato red and I laughed at how fun he was to mess with.

"Come on Liana." said Percy, trying everything in his power not to laugh. "We'll show you the lake."

And he did.

We walked around for a few hours, them explaining things, me watching. It wasn't as boring as it sounds. The camp is really cool. Eventually we finished the tour, each of us sweating buckets. Percy and Nico had to go to swording so Annabeth and I came to watch. Annabeth was supposed to be practicing too but considering the fact that I wasn't allowed to get within five feet of anything that could potentially give me even a paper cut, she decided to watch with me. The group of campers stood in circle. They stretched and did all the boring stuff and I almost nodded off in the middle. In fact, I probably would've if it hadn't been for Jack. He stalked into the room, armor, sword, helmet, and all, yelling instructions from twenty feet away.

"Partner up, (bleeeeeep)'s we don't got all day!" He shouted. The group obeyed and in the end, only one boy was left partner-less.

"Alright, Percy, you're with me." instructed Jack. Percy sighed and I could tell this happened often.

"Why doesn't anyone want to be with Percy?" I asked Annabeth in a whisper.

"He's too good." she responded, her eyes dreamy. "Everyone always loses." Her smile fell. "Well, except that Zeus boy, Russel." She growled out the name with such ferocity, it barely sounded like her.

"You don't like him either?"

"No," she said. "He's just got this… Attitude. He thinks he can beat anyone, even Jack."

"Well can he?"

She shook her head. "Not likely. Jack's the best swordsman since Luke. Even Percy can't compare to him."

I raised my eyebrows. "Wow, he's got to be good. In the books it sounded like Percy was the best swordsman of the millennia."

Annabeth smiled at this and watched as her boyfriend got into his position in front of Jack. I, meanwhile, was watching Nico who was paired with a boy I recognized from the infirmary. His name started with an S, or something…

"Nico and Todd!" Jack barked.

Oh, maybe it wasn't an S…

"Fix your positions. Both of you have your elbows way too high up. Your heart is wide open."

They both shot the man a glare before fixing their posture. It was obvious that not too many people liked Jack. The reason for that was revealed a few seconds later.

As soon as the groups had begun fighting, Jack turned to focus solely on Percy, who was standing there, sword limp in his hand, looking abnormally weak.

"You ready, Fish-Brain?" he asked, a sneer on his lips. Percy nodded feebly, not looking ready at all. Jack didn't wait for him to change his mind. He lunged at Percy so fast it took me a few seconds to process what he was doing. Percy, surprisingly, caught his first strike on the flat of his sword and immediately began to duel him. Jack was obviously not going easy on him and the son of Poseidon didn't seem to like it one bit. At first they were about even but after a few minutes Percy began to get tired and he wasn't nearly as fast or alert.

It showed.

Jack lunged at him and scraped his arm. If he hadn't been indestructible he would've had a deep gash through the skin. I wasn't really watching him but I could see Nico out of the corner of my eye, absolutely killing Todd. The fighting was brutal and the happy feeling inside my head seemed to slowly fade away as if on low tide. If this was the sort of fighting that happens on quests then there was no way that I was going to come back like my normal self.

My stomach jolted and I felt like puking. Annabeth must've been able to tell because she looked at me.

"What's wrong, Laina? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I said weakly. "I'm just scared for my quest, that's all."

She gave a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry; everyone is scared before their quest. I know I was. I don't think you will have to do this much fighting in yours so don't fret about it."

I nodded in thanks. Suddenly a thought came into my head. "Annabeth." I asked.

She answered without letting her eyes leave the campers. "Yes?"

I tried to think of the easiest way to say it. "You know how I need really good fighters with me so that I don't, you know, get my head cut off?"

Her facial expression turned confused. "Yes."

I took a deep breath. "Would you be really angry if I took Percy on my quest?" I said my words fast, dreading her answer.

Annabeth paled and she turned. I could tell that was the last thing she wanted to do, put her boyfriend in danger again, but I really needed his invincibility.

She stared at me, probably hoping I was kidding. But I wasn't. Percy was an awesome fighter and if I had to have someone with me, he would be the obvious choice.

"Laina," she said, trying to sound calm but failing. "I know he would make things easier but we just got together. I really don't want to risk losing him."

"But he's immortal." I reasoned. "It's not like he can die or anything."

"You don't know that." she said, her voice beginning to sound aggravated. "It would take only one lucky hit to kill him. Despite the fact that nobody but he and I know where his spot is, he's still in danger."

I stomped my foot like a little girl. "But he's the least likely to die out of all of us. I really need him. In fact if you want I can take you too."

Her expression turned mad. "You can't chose where I go. I don't want to go on the quest and I'm sure, neither does Percy. Choose. Someone. Else." Her face had turned red and she was staring at me, her grey eyes furious. When I didn't answer she turned back to the fights.

"You can't control what he does, you know." I said quietly. "He's his own person."

Her eyes slowly matched mine. I knew I shouldn't have gone down this road.

"What did you say?" She growled slowly, her lips as scrunched as they could ever be. The people around us were beginning to look. Todd got an easy shot to his chest when Nico turned to see what we were arguing about. Even Percy was looking at us and he was in a heap on the ground from when Jack had whacked him with the side of his sword.

"Is there a problem, ladies?" Jack asked, a smirk on his face. "Because if there is then you can always battle it out down here." He smiled, hoping we would say yes. Annabeth was still staring at me with a look of fury on her face. I knew that there was no way that I would want to face _that _so I shook my head quickly.

"No, no. I'm not supposed to be fighting."

He turned his attention to me. "Oh, so you think that you aren't going to have to fight? Well let's see how you do on your quest with that strategy. That would be hard even if you brought me."

I sighed. "And I suppose I'm not allowed to bring you."

He smiled. "Nope, sorry. You've got to fail on your own time, not mine." He turned back to the fighters before I could even begin to think of a comeback.

"Alright everyone, I think we're good for today. I'd recommend changing your clothes along with a shower. If the wimps in out midst have a cut or other injury they can use the first aid kit over there. Otherwise, get out, I've got things to do." He dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

Percy and Nico came staggering over to us when they were finished. Percy looked pretty much dead while Nico just looked tired. Percy seemed to notice the tension in the air and decided wisely not to interfere.

"I'm gonna go shower." he said after a moment or two.

"I'll walk with you to the cabins." Annabeth said, her teeth still gritted.

They left without a goodbye and soon I was left standing there with the son of Hades. Unfortunately he wasn't quite as intelligent as Percy.

"So what went on up there?" he asked.

I gave him a look. "Nothing of your concern." I turned away and started off towards the door.

"Hey, whoa, wait!" he called, running to catch up. I walked out the door and turned to look at him.

"Yes?"

He took a few breaths, winded from running. "I didn't mean to be nosy, I'm just curious."

I gave a small smile in spite of myself and his face relaxed. "You do realize that that's the same thing, right?" I asked. "Being nosy and asking and being curious and asking."

His face turned pink. "Whatever! Just tell me what happened!"

I sighed and sat down in the shade of the tree next to me. "Annabeth isn't letting me take Percy on my quest because she's scared I let him kill himself."

Nico hesitated for a moment before sitting down next to me. "She's not letting you even ask him?"

I shook my head. "Nope. She's being really unreasonable. I need a good fighter with me and Percy is one of the best."

"Next to Russel." He added.

"Yeah. I'm just worried that I'll end up having to fight and I'll mess up and get somebody killed and then everyone will hate me."

"Well, on the bright side, I already hate you, so, I mean, one less person to lose!"

I pushed his shoulder and he laughed. "Still," I continued. "She should at least let me ask him. Maybe he really wants to go."

He shook his head. "Sorry, I doubt it. We just finished the great prophecy. I don't think he wants to go out on another quest immediately."

I breathed out sharply. "You know, you could at least be somewhat supportive and helpful."

He chuckled. "I'm a son of Hades. Supportive and helpful aren't really my forte."

We laughed. When he wasn't being an immature nerd, Nico wasn't half bad. "So," he said getting up. "You wanna come see my cabin?"

I hopped up and brushed the dirt off my pants. "I don't know. I can pretty much already imagine what it looks like. Black. Skulls. The Goth stuff."

He scowled. "I'm not Goth. I'm a happy person who often wears black."

"Sure." I said sarcastically. I walked with him to his cabin anyway. I'll admit; I was surprised when I walked through the door and the first thing I saw was a keyboard. He didn't strike me as the type.

"Do you play?" I asked motioning to it.

"Yeah, a little. Lillian's been teaching me."

"Lillian?"

"That Aphrodite girl with the brown hair. She knows a lot of songs. She taught me a few of them. Can you play at all?"

"Well, my dad taught me Heart and Soul when I was like, seven and I learned Dreidle, Dreidle, Dreidle, at about the same time. Other then that, no."

"Heart and Soul." he mumbled, sitting down on his bench. "Does it go like this?" He played the first few notes.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Hmmm."

I continued examining his room. He told me stories about a few of the things. I was beginning to get a little bored when I saw something that caught my eye.

"Oh my gods. You are _not_ reading Twilight!"

He sighed. "I know, not really a 'son of the devil' thing to do, eh. Chiron had everyone read it because Empousa work very similar to vampires. Stephanie Meyer actually knew an Empousa. That's how she came up with some of the ideas."

"How are they similar."

"Well, Empousa can drink people's blood but they also eat the flesh. They can inject the poison like the Cullens do but the 'mutation' process is painless and takes only a few seconds. Only another Empousa or something whose blood is mostly magical can drink the injected venom out without becoming Empousa as well."

"Oh." I said, surprised he knew all that. I couldn't quite picture him as the sort to actually listen in class.

"Well," he said walking over to open the door. "I actually need to take a shower because at the moment I smell like a dead fish."

I pretended to take a whiff of the air. "I couldn't agree more."

"See you later." He said smiling.

"Bye."

I walked out of his cabin feeling better than I had before. I missed having an actual conversation with someone. Nico made me feel almost as if I was back sitting at the lunch table with my friends at school. It was actually a nice feeling. The only bad thing was that I was absolutely starving. My stomach was speaking to me abnormally loud and when an Aphrodite camper passed by me she giggled.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I grumbled. "I haven't eaten in hours." In fact, the last time I had eaten was this morning when I had a bowl of cereal. I skipped lunch entirely. _You were supposed to go eat with your mom._ My head voice said. And now that I think about it, I was. We were going to go get pizza together after the shopping trip that seemed years ago. _But hold on…_

I stopped dead in my tracks. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. "Mom." I said out loud.

I broke out of my daze and ran over to the big house yelling 'Chiron, Chiron'. He was sitting inside on the couch, talking to someone through an Iris message.

"He's going _mad_ lord Zeus. All the newly dead are automatically being placed in the Fields of Punishment. His shouts keep shaking the ground. The mortals think it's just a string of earthquakes but it's not likely they'll stay ignorant for much longer."

"I know, Chiron." said a low, booming voice. "He must be taken care of immediately."

"Who?" I asked.

Chiron turned with a start. "Laina?"

"Laina!" Cried lord Zeus. I walked over next to Chiron so that Zeus could see me.

"My dear, where have you been?" he cried happily.

"Whose shouts are shaking the ground?" I asked, ignoring his question.

"It's nothing you need to be worrying about." Chiron said quickly.

"Yes it is." Insisted Zeus. "Even if it's not blood relation, he's still technically her father." Chiron thought about it for a moment.

"Alright." He said finally. "Your father Hades is going crazy." Thunder shook the ground. I saw a flash of lightning through the window.

"Now, Chiron." said Zeus.

"Alright, alright. But he's definitely mad. He won't talk to anyone and he's having no mercy on anyone that comes to the underworld. He keeps yelling and-" Suddenly I heard the sound of fifty hellhounds barking at once and the ground shuddered violently. All the birds stopped chirping and the happy talking of the campers outside ceased. "And that happens." He finished.

I listened to the sound of the ground slowly going back to normal. The birds resumed their songs and I heard the quiet voices of the other kids, unsure of whether or not it was safe to talk.

"That's Hades?" I asked.

Zeus nodded. "He's gone off his rocker. I mean, he's always been a little eh, _different _but this is just ludicrous."

"It's only because he's lonely." said a familiar voice behind me. Nico di Angelo walked in, his hair wet from his shower. Zeus chuckled.

"He can't be _lonely_ Mr. di Angelo. He's Hades. He's lived alone for millennia. This one is no different.

"Well yeah," he sighed. "But it seems to finally have sunk in. Without my mom and my sister, not to mention Persephone, he is absolutely, one hundred percent, alone. I guess it's finally began to bother him."

"How do you know this, Nico?" Chiron asked, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"Because he told me." he answered simply.

He let that thought linger in the air for a few moments. "He really misses my mom. I know it's not a very Hades-like thing to do but he told me himself."

Zeus scratched his beard. "So what are you suggesting I do?"

Nico looked him right in the eye, the man a million times more powerful than him, and said simply, "Bring her back to life."

**I hope you enjoyed it. I know it's kinda boring right now but I assure you, it'll get better. I really had to set things up. When you have a confusing character such as Laina it's hard to move the story along fast. But don't worry; the quest will bring all sorts of exciting happenings. (:**


	15. Chapter 15

**Alright, sorry it's taken me so long to get this one up. I've gotten my beta back so now my commas will be good again ( :**

**This chapter is the last one before the quest. Trust me, I more excited then you are. A lot of things are going to happen on the quest. And before we start; yes, I do enjoy making fun of Justin Bieber. I don't mean it offensively but it's just so fun!**

_**Laina's POV**_

**The Evil Septuplet**

"But that's crazy!" the Lord of the Sky insisted, "I can't bring her back to life. We burned her ashes, remember? Hades keeps them in a jar up here on Olympus, black as coal."

Suddenly, Chiron's eyes widened. "Zeus!" he gasped.

The man turned his beady stare to Chiron. "That's _L__ord Zeus_ to you."

"Lord Zeus," Chiron exclaimed, waving away his comment, "It's the line in the prophecy!"

"What?" Nico and I asked in unison.

Chiron's tail was wagging with excitement. "_She'll see the lonesome in a daft, old soul, and bring life to the person burned into coal._ It all makes sense!" He skipped giddily in a circle.

"But wait," I said, interrupting Chiron's victory dance, "How am I supposed to bring Mrs. Di Angelo back to life? I don't have underworld powers yet."

Nico piped up, his eyes bright. "I think you only have to convince Zeus to let Hades bring her back to life. You need to get him to allow my dad to break the rules." He was now looking at Zeus, a hopeful expression on his face.

"I—I guess that makes sense." I stuttered. "Please dad!" Zeus breathed deeply and his nostrils flared. We all stared at him, waiting for his answer. Apparently, he realized that because this was a prophecy line, he had to abide. "Alright," he sighed finally, "I'll tell Hades he can bring his wife back from the dead."

"Hurray!"

"My dad can be happy!" Nico cried.

"We ruled out a prophecy line!" Chiron declared.

"I can finally get that rotted piece of coal out of my entrance hall!" Zeus pronounced.

We were all too happy to chastise him.

The Lord of the Sky gave us a quick goodbye before waving his hand over the picture and ending the message.

Suddenly, I remembered why I had come.

"Chiron!" I yelled. His hand went to his ear.

"My goddess Laina, you do not have to shout.

I ignored him. "My mom!" I blurted.

Chiron's brow furrowed in confusion. "Yes, what about her?"

"She has no idea where I am. I left her back at the mall this morning when I went with Rachel and Affie-Aphrodite."

Chiron shook his head. "Leave it to the Love Goddess and the Oracle to forget about the mortals."

"What do I do?" I asked frantically.

He gave me a sad smile. "I hate to say it, but I think you are going to have to get Percy's advice on being a—erm—_missing person_. We cannot tell your parents about all of this yet."

"Well, why not?" I asked in a high pitched shriek. He winced and rubbed his ear with his finger. "Please speak more quietly, Liana. You could wake the dead."

Nico shot him a look.

"What do you mean, I can't tell them yet?" I asked. "Why not?"

Sighing, he massaged his temples. "What I'm trying to say, Laina, is that your parents can't know the truth. No one can know the truth. For now, we are going to have to go along with the idea that you are missing."

"Chiron." I continued through gritted teeth. "I am telling my parents. We can trust them; they've raised me for the past thirteen years. I seriously doubt that they would ever tell anyone."

The centaur looked at me sympathetically. "That's not what I'm worried about. See, your parents are mortals. They won't be able to truly understand and believe what you can do unless they can actually watch it happening, and, unless one of them can see through the mist – Which is highly unlikely - they won't get it. If you tell them that you are a goddess, no matter what magical proof you have, it is going to take quite some time for them to finally believe you. We don't have "_quite some time_." If you still have your heart set on leaving for your quest in three days, then you are just going to have to live with not being allowed to tell your parents until after your quest."

I glared at him, trying to come up with a way to respond, but knowing that he had me. It was my choice: leave for my quest sooner, but not tell my parents for a while, or leave for the quest later, but tell my parents today. It wasn't a fair deal but I knew what I wanted.

"I'll wait to tell my parents," I said finally.

Chiron smiled and patted my back as he walked out. "I know you will."

_**Nico's POV**_

The next three days were almost completely normal.

The only thing out of the ordinary was the fact that I had to drag Laina everywhere. Granted, sometimes she could be nice, but the majority of her time was spent teasing me about the eyeliner that continued to drip down my face. You're probably thinking, _just get another brand, dude!_But to be one hundred percent honest, I spent my entire year down in Hades. There are not too many makeup stores down there.

Anyway, back to Laina. I was actually supposed to be switching off duty with Percy and Annabeth, but because of Annabeth and her little _fit_, I was stuck with the danged babysitting job. And I didn't even get paid!

However, she seemed really interested in learning to fight. Even though she wasn't supposed to be doing anything potentially dangerous because of her quickly-healing neck, I often came down with her to the arena and we worked on her skills. With a sword, she was pretty much hopeless but then again, so are most Aphrodite girls. But with self-defense, she was like one of those fangirls trying to get past the security guards at a Justin Bieber concert. Tenacious.

When I told her this, she attempted to pound me to a stub which, as I pointed out, only proves my point. She gladly proved it again. A day passed, and Laina finally saw Russell fight. That boy is good. He was almost matched evenly with Jack, which made the fight pretty impressive. He often duels with Percy, and wins just as much as he loses. He's really awkward around Laina, though. He never looks at her when she's talking and is always hiding behind a baseball cap.

Another day dragged on, and we began preparing for her quest. Somehow, someway, we silently decided that I would be one of the two people joining her on her quest. This wasn't a problem with me - I would get to meet my mom when we went down to get a blessing from Hades - but Chiron seemed a little iffy. Apparently, he agrees with her and thinks she should take Percy. But Annabeth's being as stubborn as ever and sticking to her original opinion that Percy should not be put in any danger whatsoever to prevent the risk of any unnecessary losses – blah, blah blah, blah blah.

On the last night before she left, Chiron told her that she had to choose the other camper to go on the quest with her. He said he'd invite her up to the stage during the campfire so that she could tell everyone her second pick. She stood there for a few minutes, debating carefully over the array of talented kids sitting before her. Her eyes lingered on Percy for a few seconds but Annabeth grabbed his arm and shot daggers at Laina through her thundercloud eyes. In the end, Laina surprised us all.

"Russell, will you accompany me on my quest?" she asked loudly. The entire group of campers turned their heads to look at the terrified son of Zeus whose eyes were frozen on Laina.

"Umm…" he mumbled, obviously ready to pee his pants. "I suppose I could," he said quietly, though loud enough for me to hear his Australian accent that I was finally able to identify.

Chiron smiled, pleased with her choice. He obviously wanted a decent fighter with us in case we ended up having to battle a few monsters. Chiron clomped by me afterwards, mumbling under his breath, "If only her first choice had been Percy." I didn't realize until after I had begun to walk to my cabin that his statement was offending.

The sun had set on camp, the sky pitch black with only a few faint streaks of pink The air had gotten colder, and I decided this would be a good time to get in some last minute fighting practice before I left the next morning. Quickly grabbing my sword, I set off for the arena, only to be surprised again. Laina hadn't gone back to her cabin. Instead she'd had the same idea as me to practice a little. She had a loaner sword in her hand and was battling one of the inanimate dummies… and losing.

Eventually she just gave up, turned her back to the thing, and fell to her knees. She finally noticed me standing there against the wall.

"Oh," Her face reddened. "Hi Nico… I, uh, suppose you saw that."

I grinned. "At least now I have something to tease you about."

"Wouldn't recommend it; the infirmary gets boring after a little while."

I chuckled. "I think this is going to be a fun quest."

"Don't count on it." she mumbled. "Hey, will you help me with my swording?"

"Sure." I said. Better teaching than being beat up. We practiced for a few minutes. After a half hour or so, she still hadn't improved much but she was becoming much more tolerant of my side comments ("Put your arm higher! No, no, the other one!"). I was just about to call it a night when I heard the last voice I wanted to hear.

"If you think you're going to get anywhere being taught by that wimp, then you're wrong." The person called from the shadows.

"Jack," I growled.

He stepped out from the dark half of the arena; eyebrows raised curiously, a mean twinkle in his eye. "Who else? Hey, girl, put that leg back a little. You're fighting a demigod, not stepping over a pothole."

She scowled. "Who invited you here?"

He cackled. "I don't need to be _invited._ It's my arena. Anyway, the Harpies are going to be making their rounds soon. You two dork-brains need to go off to your cabins." We both glared at him but he just waited for us to leave the room. When we got outside Laina was fuming. "I hate that stupid man!" She exclaimed. Chiron, who had been walking by, shook his head.

"Jack?"

We nodded.

He gave us a sad smile. "I know he's not the nicest person in the world, but you need to cut him some slack. He has a hard life to live."

"Oh yeah?" I snorted. "It must be _very_difficult to go around torturing all of us."

The centaur shook his head. "I mean before he came here. Jack may be a demigod but he has no idea who his godly parent is. He doesn't even know which gender they are."

We were both quiet for a moment. "Gosh, does he have any siblings that know?" Laina asked.

"Nope," Chiron said, "well he does have siblings, and actually, Jack is a septuplet."

"A what?" we both asked at the same time.

Chiron smiled and explained. "He has six other siblings, all of which are named Jack, I believe."

I laughed. "His siblings are _all_named Jack?"

"No, only five of them." Jack said, coming up from behind us. We all jumped.

"Well I guess that's better." Laina sniped.

Jack smiled his crooked little grin, revealing his bright white teeth. "Well, the other one's a sister named Jacqueline."

Chiron chuckled and trotted away. "But that doesn't mean I want your sympathy." The obnoxious instructor said, punching our shoulders as he walked away. I growled.

"That guy never ceases to irk me."

"I know what you mean." Laina said. We walked together to the ring of cabins, all of them dark with sleeping campers.

"Well," I began, "Goodnight."

"Yeah, see you in the morning." We smiled and turned to walk away.

"Wait!" she said suddenly.

"Yes?"

She pulled a clean tissue out of her pocket and handed it to me. "Your eyeliner's running again."

**Yay, the next chapter's the quest! Review please! I want to how you like it so far!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys, so sorry it took me this long to update. To repay you all I will try to get the next chapter up this weekend. Unfortunately I do not have a beta anymore, the beginning of school makes finding time to write, hard, but this way the chapters will be up faster. Unfortunately this also means that I will have a lot of misplaced commas (I swear, the bane of my existence) and my sentences won't always flow. I hope you like it anyway!**

_**Nico's POV**_

**Like Sticking a Lion in a Tiger's Cage **

Unlike usual, this quest actually had a plan of action.

Aphrodite had agreed to take us to her temporary mortal apartment where Hephaestus and Ares were staying. We would get their blessings and then go off on our own. So in the morning, after we were all packed up, we headed up to half blood hill and waited near one of the Camp-Half Blood Strawberries (Only three bucks a container, folks!), vans. Aphrodite appeared in a cloud of smoke. She had on the most un-questlike clothes you could imagine. With her super tight and ripped skinny jeans, red tank top, and high heels, she made us all look like street urchins.

"Are you guys ready to go?" she asked, patting down her outrageously curly black hair.

We all nodded.

"Good. But we're not taking that thing." She pointed to the Strawberry van (Once again, only three bucks a container!), that we were leaning against.

"Well then how are we going to get to your apartment?" asked Laina, getting up from her spot near the tire.

"That's for me to know and for you to fawn over." She motioned for us to come over. "First off, we all need to hold hands." She grabbed mine and Russel's hands and Laina went in between Russel and Aphrodite. I noticed Russel's grip on my hand get a little tighter and sweatier when he grabbed hold of Laina's.

"Next, make sure that no parts of your body other than your hands are overlapping anything else. This means that your arms cannot be bent, nor can your knees. Keep your toes spread apart and your legs uncrossed."

Laina and Russel followed her orders. I stared at their odd positions, not wanting to look that dorky. "Why?" I asked suspiciously.

I was half sure I saw a smile on the corners of the Love Goddess's, fire truck red lips. "Because if you don't then you are most likely going to be burned to death. Keep everything spread apart except for your hands." I rolled my eyes but did as she asked.

"Now, I am going to make us a ball of flame but this is very dangerous. I'm not supposed to take anyone places other than gods, using fire. There is the risk that you will burn up. But, as long as you stay absolutely still for a few seconds it should work." She took a deep breath. She obviously wasn't used to talking for so long. Being the goddess of beauty most people stared at her speechlessly.

"Nico, this is also something you can do with shadow travel. It is very difficult to master, but I think if you practice enough, it should become easier."

"Wait." I interrupted. "I can take other people places with me when I shadow travel?"

"Yes." She nodded. "The only difference is that you can overlap body parts and you all have to run into the shadow. You have to be first, of course, or their heads will run into the object and their arms will shadow travel with you. Quite an uncomfortable position, I'd say. Anywho, are you all ready?"

We all looked at each other.

"Yupper." Laina said finally. She closed her eyes. "Hold up!"

We looked at her again. "Am I allowed to keep my eyes closed?"

Aphrodite nodded, a faint smile playing at her lips. "As long as your eyelids aren't touching."

"Wait, but isn't that was closing your eyes _is_?"

But Aphrodite had already started the ball of fire. We cautiously kept our eyes wide open as a warm orange haze began to coat our legs, moving snail speed up to our stomachs. As it got higher and higher the fire got darker and darker until it had gone from the tangerine color to a blood red. I looked at Aphrodite's face and it was red.

Beautiful, but red.

The fire got higher and higher on our skin but for some reason it wasn't burning us. It was now up to my neck and I had the misfortune of realizing that my left ear was itching. I tried the impossible task of wiggling it but, alas, as wonderfully talented as I am, that is one of the few things that I cannot achieve.

As the flames covered my eyes I had the strong urge to blink but wasn't willing to risk it until I noticed both Russel's and Laina's eyes were closed.

Wimps.

Aphrodite had a small half smile on her face, still tinted red from the effort. Her black hair was sticking out in all directions and one of the tendrils kept whacking me in the face. I didn't know how I knew, but somehow I was sure that outside of our little ball was whooshing air and emptiness. There was no risk of mortals seeing us which was a fortunate thing considering, well, we were a fast moving ball of fire. As mentioned before, mortals have very insane minds when it comes to understanding the un-understandable.

The ball was slowly coming to a halt and I wondered idly where we were. If Aphrodite could do this every day then she could easily live someplace miles away from Laina's mortal school. I felt the fireball touch solid ground and the flames slowly lost their bright color and faded. As soon as the fire had passed my head I was able to take a look around.

We were obviously in some sort of city. People walked in crowds along the sidewalks carrying shopping bags and other common city items. We had landed right in front of an empty bench with a wet paint sign on it. The fire finished its fading and I looked over to see Laina gazing around in awe, Aphrodite panting from the journey, and Russel, still clamping my hand as hard as ever, his face sweaty and white. Laina wriggled free of his hand and looked over at Aphrodite.

"Oh, my gosh, that was so cool! How did you do that? Will I be able to learn?" she blurted. The Love Goddess smiled faintly.

"I don't know dear, we'll have to see."

I looked down at Russel's hand which was cutting off the circulation in mine. "Dude," I whispered, "let go of my hand. It's starting to hurt."

Russel ignored me and just swayed back in fourth. "Is it over yet?" He mumbled, his accent making the word 'over' sound like 'ovuh'.

I answered his question by pulling away.

"Where's your apartment?" Laina asked Aphrodite who had finally begun to regain her normal facial color.

The goddess turned and motioned for us to come follow her. "It's just a short walk down this way. Hurry up now, before they murder each other…"

_**Laina's POV**_

You would think that because of the fact that she was only staying in it for a few months, that Aphrodite's apartment would be just your average, boring room. But if you did think that that sorry, you're one hundred percent wrong.

The room was decorated as if for royalty, (which technically, it was) crystal chandeliers and all. The walls were painted a pale pink and long white curtains were draped along the sides of the windows. We had opened the door into the main sitting room and off of it were one hallway and a kitchen. There was an ugly man sitting on the couch, flipping through channels on the flat screen T.V., and another was sitting angrily on the floor, his eyes set in a permanent glare. A table sat near them, split into two pieces, and under the table I could see a large, unfixable dent in the floor. All in all, it was a pretty sad place.

"Boys!" Aphrodite cried. "What happened to my fine pine wood table?" She stared at them some more and suddenly her eyes got even wider. "And why is there blood on my couch?"

The men looked over at her. The one I supposed was Hephaestus smiled and looked at Ares expectantly. The War God sighed and mumbled incoherently.

"What's that Ares?" Aphrodite demanded.

"We arm wrestled to see who would have control over the T.V. channel and the couch." He grumbled, finally.

"That doesn't explain the blood."

Ares looked pleadingly at Hephaestus. The God of the Forges just smiled and crossed his arms, waiting. "And then we played footsie to see who would have to tell you what happened with the table."

Aphrodite opened and closed her mouth a few times. Nico snorted.

"How does playing a game of footsie draw blood?" he asked. At this Ares' smile widened and Hephaestus blushed.

"Why don't you tell them, H-man, ol' buddy?" Ares spat giddily.

"He missed my foot." He growled. It was only then that I noticed the three inch long cut running along Hephaestus's jaw.

"_Ouch._" we all whispered.

"What is this, the fifth time I've had to replace this table?" Aphrodite snarled, her eyes fiery and dangerous.

"Sorry, sweetheart." They both mumbled.

I stepped up. "Umm, sorry to bother you guys, but I kind of-"

They gasped in unison. "Laina?" they said.

"It can't be…" mumbled Ares.

"Zeus, tell me I'm dreaming." Hephaestus murmured dazedly.

The War god said, "Pinch me."

Hephaestus was too surprised to follow his orders.

"Yeah, yeah." Aphrodite groaned, still ticked from the whole broken table thing. "Now give her your blessing so they can head out to get the others."

"Hold up," Ares stammered. "how is she still alive?"

While we explained the entire story to the two Olympians, Aphrodite went and got some crackers. We sat down on the couch together and munched, watching their facial expressions turn from astonished to angry, to happy. By the time we had finished our story it was about ten a.m. and we were full of crackers. Nico burped and Russel shot him a look.

"What? In Britain they don't belch?" He let another one out and I snorted.

"You know very well that I am _Australian_." He growled through his teeth. Nico just smiled and burped again. Ares gave him a pat on the back.

"Brother, you've got potential!"

"So, all we need to do is give you are blessings?" Hephaestus asked.

"I think." I said. "Right, Aphrodite?" The Love Goddess nodded.

"Yep. That's all. Then you can head off to catch Apollo and Hermes. I think I have an idea of where they might be."

Hephaestus stood up and walked over in front of me. He held out two fingers and placed them on my forehead. I closed my eyes and after a moment or two I felt something fuzzy spread throughout my veins. It was a nice feeling and it tickled slightly. A few seconds passed and it slowly faded away. When it was gone my bones felt stronger and my brain felt smarter than it had before. My arms seemed to get heavier with muscle and I felt my eyebrows get bushier. Hephaestus - er - dad held me to his chest for a few moments, his breathing soft. When he pulled away Aphrodite grimaced.

"Why don't you put my charm back on, Laina?" she suggested, a look of disgust one her face.

"Why?" I asked, admiring my new muscles.

Hephaestus chuckled. "I'm not the best looking god, Lain, sweetie." I looked at everyone's faces and a picture formed in my head of what I must look like.

"Okay." I said. "I mean no offense to you, dad."

He smiled. "It's alright, I want you to get a husband the normal way, not by them being forced to marry you." He looked over at Aphrodite who wasn't even following the conversation and was, instead, examining her nails. She felt us all staring and looked up. "What?"

"Nothing." we mumbled.

Ares came over and did the same thing that Hephaestus had done with his two fingers. The fuzzy feeling came through again and I smiled. When it died I heard everyone gasp.

"Wowee, she looks just like Clarisse." Nico exclaimed.

"No kidding." Russel murmured.

"Hey!" said Ares suddenly. "Haven't I met you somewhere else?" He looked over at Russel whose eyes had now gotten three times bigger.

"Umm… I don't – think so." He stuttered violently.

"Yeah," Hephaestus muttered. "I think I've also seen him before. They both stood up and walked over to where Russel was sitting on the couch.

Aphrodite gave them a warning glance before her face turned to confusion. "Hold on a second, I recognize him too."

Russel's face turned pale and he looked ready to puke. "No, sorry. I don't think I recognize you all from anywhere other than my Greek mythology books. Now where do you suppose Apollo and Hermes are, Aphrodite?"

They all stopped and Aphrodite sat back down. "Well, I often catch them going into the community center down where you lived, Laina.

I sadly recognized the 'd' at the end of 'live'. "Yeah, the one with the stage?"

She nodded. "I have a feeling they're there. I would I.M. them for you but if they're around mortals it wouldn't be a good idea. Here," She handed me six or seven gold coins. Nico's jaw dropped. "Use these to contact them if you can't find them at the community center."

"That's a _ton _of drachmas, Aphrodite." Nico said.

"What, are you complaining?"

He shook his head so much that his long hair seemed to turn into a mushroom. "No, ma'am, not at all."

"Well then leave." Ares growled. "We've got T.V. to watch."

"Oh, you've got T.V.?" Aphrodite turned to face them, her hands on her hips.

"Uhh, yeah." He looked over at Hephaestus who had the same confused expression on his face as Ares did.

"No, no. _You two _are going to go get a broom, a dustpan, and some cleaning supplies, get this table off the ground, _and get this_ _blood off my couch_!" she yelled.

Both of the gods groaned and walked in to the kitchen to get the cleaning stuff out from under the sink.

"This is your fault." Hephaestus mumbled.

"Oh it's my fault?" asked Ares. "You think that just because you aren't strong enough to block my foot that you get to blame _me _for all of this?"

"You're calling me weak? Well then I don't know what you're calling yourself considering I beat you in arm wrestling."

"You're a freaking cheater, you no good scum bag full of-"

"Ugh!" Aphrodite groaned. "I swear, every single day!" She stalked off towards the kitchen.

After hearing the string of words coming from the kitchen, all of which I was either not allowed to say or weren't even in my vocabulary, we decided smartly to go.

**R&R please! It doesn't have to be more than a word or two.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Okay, so it wasn't quite last weekend, but at least I have it up (and it's long too)! I'm hoping that this will be the second to last chapter with just the gods' blessings. I know they aren't the most exciting chapters. R&R please!**

_**Nico's POV**_

**Possums, Auditoriums, And Russel's Dumb Idea**

Ever since Aphrodite told me that I could learn to take people with me while shadow traveling, I had been aching to try it. So when we were stuck with the challenge of getting from wherever we were now to Virginia, I had my hand raised pretty high.

"Gosh Nico." Laina snorted. "What, do you really need to pee?"

"No!" I exclaimed. "Well, actually…"

"We don't have time." Russel snapped. He had seemed pretty irritable ever since we'd left the apartment. "Why were you waving your hand like that?"

I hesitated before answering, fearing his response. "I was wondering if I could try out the whole 'taking other people with me while shadow traveling' thing this time."

"Are you mad?" Laina accused. "Don't you remember what Aphrodite said could happen? I like my arms attached to my body, thank you very much!"

Russel seemed to agree. He had his arms crossed over his chest and one of his eyebrows was raised as if flaunting that he hadn't been yelled at and I had. My face reddened.

"Come on, do we really have a choice? We're all the way in some city, probably miles away from Virginia. Can I at least try? I mean, would you rather walk?"

Laina sighed and looked at Russel. "He's kinda right. I have a feeling we're in D.C., I've been there before. I don't have enough money for a taxi down the block, much less all the way to Virginia."

Russel bit his lip thoughtfully. "I suppose we will have to try. Granted, I'm not exactly comfortable putting my trust in a guy who isn't smart enough to buy a decent brand of eyeliner…" I glared at him and wiped my cheeks with my wrists. "But I suppose if we must then we must."

I smiled and led them over to a small park. Kids were running all over the place, throwing dirt and wood chips. I knew that because of the mist the mortals' eyes would be blocked from seeing the truth, but I still wanted to be cautious. We walked together into a small patch of trees, out of the city peoples' view.

"Alright." I began. "First off, we need to hold hands like we did with Aphrodite.

They each got on one side of me. I could already feel Russel's hand sweating and I gave him a look. He stuck his tongue out at me, wiped his hand off on his pants, and then grabbed mine again, using a little more force than was necessary. After wincing, I continued.

"As you know, you two need to be a few paces behind me when we run into the shadow or else it is likely that you will not appear in one piece." I explained. "I am going to aim for that shadow from that large tree over there," I pointed to a pretty pine tree that reminded me of Thalia's back at camp.

They nodded and we got into position to run.

I began my jog and they followed. I could feel Laina's pulse (I was somewhat holding her wrist) and it was fast. They were both pretty scared.

"Hold up!" I said suddenly. We all stopped, inches away from the shadow. "I forgot one more thing."

They listened to my instructions carefully. "When you get to the shadow you must make the sound similar to a hellhound's bark. If you don't then they will get offended, shadow travel, meet us halfway to our destination, and eat us alive."

Laina looked at me quizzically. "That wasn't in the books."

"Well obviously not." I exclaimed. "If it were, then the mortal kids who new me would be able to figure out why I was barking all the time."

She nodded. "I get it."

We backed up to our original spot and started off in our run again. As I stepped into the shadow I found that it was much harder to get through then it usually was. I felt as if all the energy was being siphoned out of me, and I knew that soon I would be asleep. I was only faintly aware of the two kids beside me, barking like guard dogs, making absolute fools of themselves.

_**Laina's POV**_

I'll give the kid credit, we got back in Virginia. I just wish he could've gotten us there _without _passing himself out. When the fuzziness faded from my eyes he was knocked out cold on the floor. Russel and I stared at him for a few moments.

"So…" I said.

"Yeah…"

I cleared my throat.

He coughed quietly into his shoulder.

I bit my lip at how stupid we sounded. "Well…" I urged him.

He frowned. "Well, what?"

I motioned to the unconscious kid on the floor. "Aren't you gonna pick him up?"

Russel opened and closed his mouth. "What? Me? Pick him up? I don't think so! He feels like death!"

I crossed my arms. "Well, I'm not doing it. I'm not strong enough anyway. If we both try you'll just call me a nuisance."

Russel stared at Nico and whimpered. "We can't just leave him here?"

"Pick. Him. Up. Russel." I said through gritted teeth. He scowled and pulled Nico off the floor. It was then that I finally looked around.

We were standing together in the lobby of the community center where I used to take hip-hop. I remembered the plush maroon couch and the fancy wooden table. The T.V. for the waiting parents was turned on to the news and what I saw made my heart skip a beat.

It was my mother. Her brown hair was uncombed and she had large bags under her eyes from no sleep. My father didn't look much better. He didn't appear to have shaved in a few days and his chin resembled a porcupine. The volume was off but I knew what was going on. They had reported me as a missing child. My mom, I'm sure, was talking about my new friend Rachel and how odd she was.

When I had brought Rachel to my house for the first time, she hadn't gotten the best first impression. Let's just say that my mom found it disturbing to know that a twelve year old girl kept a knife (non magical) hidden in her boot. Rachel had tried to explain that her parents were just over cautious but my mom hadn't let me hang out with her until she was positive that Rachel could be trusted. This of course meant asking her a bunch of embarrassing questions which I would rather not get into.

I watched my mom's sad face as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. Suddenly, I could relate to Percy and how he felt when his mom "died" and his only family member left was Gabe. You don't understand the true feeling of loneliness until you experience it yourself. When you _do _feel it, it's as if you will never have the same life again.

I watched the T.V., tears welling up in my eyes. I felt Russel put a hand on my shoulder. Somehow, I wasn't sure how, but I knew that he had experienced the same sort of loneliness sometime in his life.

"We need to get going." He whispered softly in my ear.

I took a deep breath and turned away from the screen. I motioned for Russel to follow me and we walked together to the counter.

The woman was sitting at the desk, filing her nails, looking as bored as ever. Her straight, dirty blonde hair looked almost spiky and her lips were so red they could almost compare to Aphrodite's. She had on and outfit that reminded me of a flight attendant and her feet were up on her desk.

"Yes?" she asked flatly.

I cleared my throat. "I'm Elaine Caters. I used to take dance classes here. Have you seen two unusual men recently? They might've… stood out a little more than the others."

She held her hand up to the light and examined her pinky finger. "Well, I see a lot of _unusual men_, but I guess the oddest I've seen today were pair of older teens. One called me a dumb mortal and the other tried to flirt with me using terrible poetry. Now, do you think this nail is too pointy?"

Russel nodded. "Yes that's them. I've heard Apollo's poetry. Where did they go?"

The lady compared her two pinkies. "They said that they were going to watch the dance rehearsal in the stage room. Now quick, which finger do you think looks better?"

Russel made to speak but I elbowed him in the ribs. I knew from past experience that that was a trick question and we'd either be stuck in a long conversation about appropriate cuticle sizes or be pegged to death with random desk items.

"Thank you ma'am, that helped us a lot." I grabbed Russel's shirt and dragged him and Nico along.

"Oww! Watch it Laina." He groaned.

"Well, excuse me for saving our behinds." I hissed.

"Don't eat the possum, Edward!" Nico mumbled in his sleep.

"Let's just go." Russel growled. The sooner we can finish this danged quest, the better."

I scowled at him. It was amazing how fast a person could go from being sweet and sympathetic to rushed and angry. I felt my heart sink but I led the way to the stage.

I hadn't been to the community center in ages and had almost forgotten what it looked like. The room was dark and cold and despite the hip hop dancers, I felt alone. Russel dropped Nico on an empty seat and we walked down towards the stage. When we got there I was surprised to recognize my old class from when I used to dance.

"Elaine?" someone called from my right. I looked over and was thrilled to see my mortal friend Lauren standing next to my other friends Grace and Brielle.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. I ran over to them and gave them each big hugs.  
"What have you been doing?" Brielle squealed.

"Yeah," said Grace. "Why'd you quit?"

I chattered aimlessly with them for a little while before Russel tapped me on the shoulder.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning.

He looked from my friends to me and I could tell that whatever he wanted to tell me, he didn't want them to hear. He whispered a few lines in Greek. At first I was confused to why he was talking gibberish but after a moment or two the words worked themselves out in my head.

He said, "These kids might tell the police that they saw you here and get you sent back to your mortal parents. Be careful."

I shook my head and whispered back, also in Greek, "Don't worry, they don't know me well enough, and I doubt that they watch the news."

He nodded.

"Hey," Lauren said, looking over at Russel. "Who's that, your boyfriend?"

I snorted and Russel's face turned so red that the maroon seats he was standing in front of looked pale.

"No," he growled, embarrassedly. "I'm just her friend."

They probably would've teased him further, making my life even harder, but they seemed to notice his accent for the first time.

"Whoa!" Grace giggled. "Are you British?"

"Actually I'm-"

"That's so cool!" Brielle interrupted him. "Addison! This guy's got the same accent as you!"

A girl who hadn't been in my class before jogged over. She had shoulder length brown hair pulled up in a high ponytail, long black leggings and a T-Shirt that read _'Duck at Heart'_ with a picture of a duck on the front. She was staring at Russel quizzically.

"You're British too." Addison asked. Her voice was loud and firm but I couldn't hear any trace of an accent in it.

"I'm Australian, actually." he said, his face still florescent.

"Crap." Addison growled. "I thought I'd found someone else for them to call _Brittain-_y."

Russel nodded but by the dazed look on his face I could tell he wasn't really listening to what she was saying.

"You don't have an accent." I pointed out to her.

She turned to look at me for the first time. "Actually, I do. I just don't use it because people tease me. I take it back; they like to tease me anyway." She squinted at my face. "I think I recognize you from somewhere." she mumbled. "T.V. maybe?"

I looked at Russel, panicked. He cleared his throat.

"Have any of you seen two weird men in here recently?"

I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the gods he could come up with something that quickly.

They all peered over their shoulders and I saw two people holding newspapers in front of their face. I could tell they were watching us.

"They come in here every day." Grace whispered. "They never say anything. They just watch."

"It's kinda creepy." said Lauren.

"More than kinda." Addison muttered.

Russel and I watched the two guys for a moment. I noticed a large snake ring curling around one of the men's fingers.

"Thanks guys, I'll talk to you later." I gave them each a hug and smiled at Addison who saluted back.

"I bid you good luck on your quest." she said.

I wasn't sure if she knew something or was just saying that to be funny, but I didn't have time to worry about it. I led Russel over to the mysterious men and my friends went back to their class up on the stage.

"Apollo?" I whispered. "Hermes?" They both looked up. It wasn't until then that I realized the newspapers were translucent when you got close enough.

"Laina, we've been waiting for you." said one of them, with a huge smile so blinding it was almost Aphrodite worthy.

He had that typical lifeguard look with the long messy brown hair covering the eyes ever so slightly, and the big muscles. He seemed to glow even in the dull lighting of the stage. I recognized him immediately as Apollo.

Hermes looked a little older than Apollo; more in his twenties than his teens. He had brown hair like The Sun God's but it was cropped in an army-like cut that couldn't look better on anybody else. His muscles were just as huge and it seemed like he had purposely chosen a tight shirt. His ears were very pointy and his eyebrows were downturned. I could totally see him as Connor and Travis's dad.

"Dad." I said, nodding at Apollo. "Other dad."

They both laughed and I chuckled along. They seemed like the sort of parents that you could goof off with.

We got over the awkwardness quickly, and soon we were explaining the entire story to them. When we got to the part about how Persephone had caused my fall into the Lethe, Hermes stepped in.

"I've met Persephone a few times when I came to deliver the dead." he explained. "Moodiest girl I've ever met. Always complaining. Don't worry; you're not the only thing that she wants to push in a river, Laina."

I smiled but I was secretly sad. It was enough to come back as a goddess after being a mortal for almost a hundred years. Now I had an enemy to worry about too? And it wasn't even my fault!

Apollo seemed to sense my unhappiness and he patted my back.

"Don't worry, darling. Once you get all your powers, there's no way that she could hurt you."

I giggled. "So, would you guys mind giving me my blessings?"

"Of course!" Hermes said, and stood up. He walked over to me and placed two of his fingers on my forehead. "Is this how I do it?"

"Yes. Well, that's how everyone else did it."

He closed his eyes and after a moment or two I felt the fuzzy feeling. I smiled as it pulsed through my veins, making me feel, if possible, stronger than before. He pulled away and the feeling slowly left.

"Wow." I said. Apollo held up a mirror and I saw a pretty version of me with elfish ears and a mischievous glint in my eyes. I had a sudden urge to steal Hermes's cool snake ring.

"My turn!" Apollo said in a sing-songy voice. He jumped up from his chair and placed his two fingers on my forehead like Hermes had. The same thing happened. Afterwards, I looked in the mirror and was surprised to see that I looked really good.

"I thought my looks were Aphrodite's turf." I said.

"Mostly," Apollo said, smiling, "But I'm just so gorgeous that you inherit a little of my beauty; inside, and outside of course."

Hermes stuck his head up over Apollo's shoulder. "You also get some of his charming modesty."

Apollo whacked him jokingly in the forehead. "Don't even pretend you don't know it." We all laughed. "So, I guess you guys need to head out." Apollo supposed sadly.

I nodded. "Yeah, sorry. We still have to get… Who is it again Russel?"

He cleared his throat and stuttered. "Huh? Oh, Artemis and Athena I believe."

"Yeah," I said. "Artemis and Athena."

We turned to go.

"Hold up!" said Apollo.

We turned back around. "Send my sister this poem." He cleared his throat.

"_I miss you, my sister, your bow in the air,_

_Head tossed back, for all to stare_

_For the moon, white, not at all orange,_

_Connects us like the door and the door hinge."_

He gave a dramatic sigh and finished his poem with his eyes closed.

"_I miss you my sister, your arrows on the fly._

_I wave happily from my amazingly hot and awesome chariot."_

He looked up to see our verdict.

"Wow." I said. "That was very…"

"Touching." Russel finished.

"Yes," Hermes said. "Orange and door hinge. Very clever,"

Apollo gave a huge smile and patted me on the back. Thank you, thank you. Good luck with the rest of your quest."

I gave them each a hug goodbye before we waved to my friends, gathered Nico, and left the building.

The fresh summer air felt good on my face and I was totally refreshed by the time we had taken a few steps. The auditorium had been freakishly hot and the cool breeze felt nice on my pink, sweaty skin. Things were going so easily… Almost too easily. So far, we hadn't encountered any monsters. I was expecting it to be like the quests in the Percy Jackson books with danger and death around every corner, but now, as Russel and I walked down the sidewalk, Nico over Russel's shoulder, I felt, well, peaceful. As if I might actually get used to this. A nice warm wind blew through my hair and I saw Russel watching me out of the corner of my eye. I was about to shoot him a weird look but a voice in my head said otherwise. _Let him watch you… It's out of admiration…_ I smiled and pushed my hair behind my ears. I wondered why I was feeling like this. So confident. So happy. It was when I finally realized that it was just because I was on Apollo's charm that I frowned.

I inherited a lot more from Apollo than Hermes thought.

I put the Hermes charm back on and smiled when I felt my upper arms get stronger. I wasn't used to being both good looking and muscled at the same time. We walked together down the sidewalk, the happy sound of kids playing and adults chatting all around us.

Of course, Nico had to ruin it.

"AHHH! DEMON WOLF THING!" He yelled, flailing his arms like an idiot. Russel gasped and nearly dropped him.

"Well, he's awake." Russel determined.

The people around us stopped doing what they were doing to stare at us.

"Nico,_ shut up!_" I hissed.

But apparently he wasn't done.

"DON'T EAT ME, DON'T EAT ME!" He yelled, falling to the floor in the fetal position. "TAKE BELLA INSTEAD!" He sat there whimpering for a few minutes before either of us attempted to do anything. My face was bright red, I'm sure. I looked around at all the people watching. My eyes rested on three policemen, their walkie-talkie's in their hands. Normally this wouldn't bother me but this time my heart was thumping so hard I was sure they could hear it.

I was a runaway.

A missing child.

And those policemen were staring right at me.

Apparently Russel saw them too because he immediately grabbed Nico and we took off together, in hope of getting a decent lead.

"_Get them._" I heard someone say from behind me.

I didn't turn to look.

If those police officers got us it would be over. All of it. I would never be allowed to get the rest of my bracelet lit up. My parents would rather me play with fire then get involved with things as dangerous as the Greek gods. Russel and I ran as fast as we could, anywhere away from people.

"Hold my hand." Russel said, coming close to me. Nico grasping on to him with all his might, a look of pure terror on his eyeliner covered face.

"That's sweet, Russel," I said through clenched teeth, "But I'm worried more about my real life than my love life at the moment."

"Just hold on!" he growled, grabbing hold of my arm in his steel hand. An orange haze engulfed me and I remember screaming as my leg brushed up against something blazing hot. I closed my eyes as we tumbled through the air, landing gracelessly on hard rocky ground.

"Am I dead yet?" I heard a familiar voice ask.

"Not quite." said another.

I tried to speak but my leg was in too much pain. It felt as thought someone was extinguishing a burning stick on my shin. All ended up croaking was, "Mehdugh."

"Lain?" Nico's voice asked. "Are you okay?"

"Does she look okay?" Russel snarled, his Aussie accent a little stronger than normal.

"Sorr-y." Nico whispered.

"I'm so sorry Laina." Russel sighed. "I really should've told you not to have any of your body parts touching. It's my fault."

I clutched my stinging leg. "Just. Help. Me." I choked, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Nico," Russel directed. "Get the Ambrosia and nectar out of my backpack."

"Yes sir." Nico handed him a bottle and a plastic baggie. Soon I was chewing on some sort of butter and a mysterious liquid was trickling down my leg. I felt better almost immediately and the burning subsided to a steady ache. I opened my eyes and looked around.

We were in an alleyway of some sort. The floor was cold and damp and flies were bussing around everywhere.

Lovely.

Russel was working on making a cast for me out of a scarf and Nico was rocking back and fourth on his butt, his knees pulled to his chest. I stared at him.

"Thinking about my dream." He told me.

I decided not to ask.

After a minute or two, I had a red cast around my leg and another piece of the delicious liquid butter in my mouth. I hadn't been able to see the burn before the cast was put on it but I had a feeling it would only make me barf up the ambrosia. I felt good and soon I was ready to go out with them and find a decent place to stay for the night.

"Russel, we are going to find somewhere to stay, but when we do, you are going to tell me exactly what just happened, okay?"

"What?" Russel complained. "I don't even get a thank you?"

"Thank you." I grumbled.

"What about me?" Nico asked brushing the seat of his pants off and stretching.

"Are you kidding me?" I shouted.

"Shhh!" Russel exclaimed.

I ignored him. "You're the one who caused all that commotion in the first place!" I accused. "Maybe if you had listened to us and shut up then we wouldn't be in this mess."

Nico scowled. "You didn't dream what I dreamt, Laina. In fact, I'll tell you about it-"

"Not now." Russel interrupted. "Let's find somewhere decent to eat and sleep, and then you can tell us about it. Let's go." We turned to leave.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere." said a voice from the back of the alley.

We all gasped and turned. Nico screamed.

"No, we need to have a little chat first." they said, and stepped out of the shadows.

**Yeah, sorry the whole fireball thing was confusing, oh well, I'll go back into it later. Anyway, I'm REALLY excited! Soon I'm gonna get to the actionish part! Yay! Yeah, they're not just going to go around getting all the gods' blessings, which would get really boring. No, things are soon going to get pretty exciting… But no hints. Reviews would make me very happy!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Fast post, huh? You should be proud of me. Artemis and Athena are done! Next they go to Hades… More about that at the end.**

_**Nico's POV**_

**The Three Little Ditchers**

I'll admit it, I almost peed myself.

You would too if you had spent the last, what, eight, nine hours without going and suddenly a woman you don't know pops out of a dark alley behind you. Pretty scary stuff. The good news is that, despite my first impression, I did know her. But to be honest, I wasn't too happy to see her.

"Artemis?" I asked.

The young teen turned to look at me. "Nico? Is that you? You've gotten so big. My, my, you would make a _magnificent_ jackalope."

She gave me a somewhat approving nod and a black haired woman appeared next to her. Her eyes were a beady grey that seemed to scrutinize my every breath. I felt the need to fix my shirt or something but she spoke before I could.

"Children." She looked us each over. It might've been my ADHD, or it might've been her staring. Regardless, I started squirming.

"Mother." Laina said, sounding very professional. I knew better then to take her seriously but apparently Athena and Artemis didn't. As soon as they caught sight of her, both of their eyes softened and for a second they looked stunned.

"Laina, dear, is that you?" Artemis asked, her eyes wide in surprise and disbelief.

Laina smiled, nodded, and leaned in to hug her two mothers. Surprisingly, they hugged her back. You don't usually get that from this sort of god.

Russel and I waited awkwardly as Laina told the story of her reincarnation for the third time today. When she was finished, both of the goddesses were lost in thought.

"What I want to know," Athena began, "Is how Aphrodite knew this story and we didn't."

"Exactly what I was wondering." said Artemis. "But we can worry about that later. For now, let's give you this blessing." She stood up and walked over to Laina. She placed two of her fingers on her daughter's forehead, exactly as Hephaestus and Ares had. Suddenly a thought occurred to me.

"Wait, wait, wait. I thought we were going to find Apollo and Hermes before Artemis and Athena."

Laina, with her eyes still closed, snorted. "Nico, you really shouldn't have passed yourself out. We got their blessings, visited a fancy restaurant with golden napkins, and, what was it? Oh yeah, used a fancy _bathroom_."

I could tell Laina was kidding but the word bathroom drove me mad. I grit my teeth, crossed my legs and glared at her.

Eventually Laina had gotten both of their blessings and Russel was packing us his first aid kit to go.

"We used a dangerous amount of ambrosia and nectar today." He told us. "We only have enough for about one more big injury."

Artemis looked around, trying to see who had gotten hurt. Her eyes rested on Laina's red scarf thing. "Laina, how did you hurt your leg?" She exclaimed, glaring at Russel and I as if we were automatically to blame if anything happened to her precious daughter.

"Oh, nothing mom, I just-"

"Fell and cut herself." Russel interrupted; his face covered in sweat even through the sun was setting. "It's nothing to worry about, just a minor scrape. We had to be extra careful, though. Don't want to risk infection." He nodded with a little extra force and I saw the two goddesses exchange looks.

"Is that true Laina dear?" Athena asked, obviously not believing him.

"Yeah mom, we were running away from a few policemen and I fell when I turned to go into the alley. It's no big deal." They looked at her leg, still a little skeptic.

Athena had opened her mouth to say something but my stomach growled before she could. She shut it with a humph and closed her eyes.

"I suppose you all need food."

She said the word _food_ as if it were a grubby, rude beggar with no teeth and bad breath.

"There is a motel down the street and right next door is a restaurant. I suppose we could get you a room for a day or so."

"As long as there's a bathroom." I stated, jumping up from the ground. As I hurried past my quest-mates, I heard Laina whisper to Russel, "You are going to explain that lie as soon as we are alone."

Artemis and Athena led the way out of the alley through the car traffic. They weren't too reliable though. They led us right to the middle of the street, causing cars to swerve, trying everything in their power not to hit us.

Apparently they weren't familiar with Virginia's rush hour.

Their clothes proved that theory. Now that they had stepped out into the light I could see them better. Athena had on a long lavender dress and sandals, a sword strapped to a small brown belt. Her black hair was up in a braid and her serious face wore no makeup.

Artemis had on the clothes of her hunters: silvery white shirts and stretchy black pants. Her quiver and bow were slung over her shoulder. Her hair was mostly down but some was secured in a clip on the back of her head.

We arrived at the motel with a huge sigh of relief from the demigods. When on a quest you'd rather die heroically from a monster attack, than pathetically from a car that turned slightly too late.

Big yellow letters flashed at us 'The Sunnyside Motel.' I looked at the dark building looming in front of us and I couldn't help but mutter, "Maybe when the sun explodes."

Athena put a key into one of the many doorknobs, and I didn't even look around before sprinting to the bathroom. I could hear Laina and Russel laughing from the other room.

What, I've got a pea sized bladder.

When I stepped out of the bathroom the first thing I was hit with was the scent.

I hadn't noticed it before, I had been too focused on my own problems, but the place reeked of fancy perfume; and not the good smelling kind either. This stuff was a mixture of wilted roses, baby wipes, and those pine air fresheners that people hang from the little mirrors in their cars. The carpet was a pukey pink and the wallpaper was flowered but gross looking at the bottom, probably from leaky pipes and mold. I walked around a sharp corner, deciding that this place couldn't be worse.

Well, I was wrong.

The same pink carpet went on throughout the entire motel room and same with the wallpaper. A single chandelier hung crookedly above the old fashioned kitchen table, missing two of its light bulbs. The family room consisted of a plaid sofa that even I, the son of Hades, knew, clashed with the wallpaper worse than one striped sock and one polka dotted. A cruddy T.V sat facing the couch, claimed home by a couple of spiders. The short hallway behind me led off to the bathroom I had used, and one or two other rooms, each door with its own signature stain.

Overall, the place was disgusting.

Laina and Russel seemed to think so too. They stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, not willing to touch anything, in fear of it coming alive and swallowing them whole. I looked around for Athena and Artemis but they weren't in the room.

"Where are the goddesses?" I asked.

Russel looked up from the half decomposed magazine he had been examining. "They went to go get us some food. Apparently they don't trust us to get it on our own." He sighed and went back to flipping through the pages.

I dodged a moth. "This place is revolting."

"Hush. It's better than that alley." Laina scolded.

"One would assume." I mumbled. I walked down the hallway to check out the other rooms. One consisted of two sets of bunk beds, another was a locked closet, and the last was the bathroom which, I swear, had an area of around nine square feet.

Three teenagers sharing one miniscule toilet room.

Joyous.

I got out of there pretty quick; the smell was just too much to bear. When I walked back into the room Laina and Russel were sitting at the kitchen table, in deep conversation. They didn't see me behind them so I prepared myself to jump out and scare them.

"So I still don't get it." Laina was saying. "Why did you lie about the whole fire thing? I know for a fact that you got us to the alley the same way that Aphrodite got us to D.C. I didn't fall and scrape myself. Why aren't you telling the truth?"

Russel sighed and rubbed the sweat from his brow. His cheeks were as red as I had ever seen them. I saw something in his eyes. Guilt, regret, fear, all of them could be found in his bright blue irises.

"I… I didn't want to tell you this way." He stuttered.

"Tell me what?"

He looked out the dirt covered window at the dead bug squished up against the glass. "I have a secret, Laina," he whispered, "Something big."

"What are you hiding?" Laina demanded.

He took a deep breath and I sneaked even closer. I knew that he probably wouldn't say what he was going to, with me around. If it was as bad as he was making it seem then it would just be one more thing for me to tease him about. I ducked behind the couch, still in view but not as noticeable.

"Laina," he looked up and met her eyes. "I… I'm not just your average demigod."

Her eyebrows scrunched up. "Well then what are you?"

He groaned and twiddled his fingers.

This was getting intense.

"I can't say. But… but when you do find out what I am, I'm sorry."

She made a snarling noise. "Russel, you tell me what you are this minute!"

He shook his head. "I can't stay here. You and Nico need to go down and get the blessing from Hades. After that go and get Poseidon. It's not safe for me to see them."

"You are not going anywhere until you explain to me what you are."

A tear went down his cheek and it finally struck me how serious this conversation actually was. He looked her in the eyes and held her hand for a gross amount of time before softly saying, "No."

And with that he took a step back, turned into a fireball, and was gone.

It had happened too fast for me to process. So Russel was _gone_? Not even part of our quest anymore? I wanted to do a victory dance.

But something told me not to.

If Russel found it necessary to leave us, then he must be hiding something pretty bad. My first thought was that he was a monster, but he had gotten past the magical boundaries at camp, fine. Something told me that he was a being much more powerful than a monster.

I knew what he was. I had all of the pieces to the puzzle I just couldn't fit them together. It's the worst feeling. It's like on a math test where you can't remember how to divide fractions but you know it has something to do with reciprocals.

But a million times worse.

Laina sat at the kitchen table, her head in her hands. She looked absolutely miserable, so naturally, being the kind person I am, I decided to try to help.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked. I knew my voice sounded really fake but she was so depressed that she didn't notice.

"Russel left." she said.

"What do you mean, he left?" I asked, playing dumb.

A tear tumbled down her cheek and I sat down in Russel's spot.

"He just left."

"For good?"

"For good."

"Why on earth would he-"

"I don't know." She sucked in a breath. "We need him. We can't get down to Hades without him."

I gave a weak smile. "What, I'm not good enough for you."

"No, Nico that's not what I meant. I need you just as much as I need him."

I laughed. "I know. I just wanted to hear you admit it."

"Idiot."

"I know."

I handed her a clean tissue I had in may pocket (drippy eyeliner, remember?) and she wiped her tears away.

"So what are we gonna do?" I asked after a moment or two of silence.

"I don't know." She leaned back on her chair and closed her eyes. "I guess… I guess we're just gonna have to do the best we can without him."

"Yeah…" I said. "It's probably better that he doesn't come down to Hell with us anyway. Dad's got no mercy these days. He'd end up joining the other ghosts in no time."

"Yikes."

"Yeah."

We were quiet for a moment and I stared out the window. This was not the time for a victory dance. Yes, Russel was gone but now we had one more thing to worry about. And things had been going so well! We hadn't seen any monsters since that weird fight back at camp with the demons fighting each other. It was as if they were being told by someone, "Don't go after any demigods." It was the weirdest thing. But I knew we would encounter some down in Hades. I was about to say something to break this awful silence, when the door opened.

The two goddesses stepped inside, fuming for some reason.

"I cannot _believe _that stupid man." Artemis growled dropping two bags of fast food on the kitchen table. She wiped her hands off on her pants.

"I know!" groaned Athena, setting down one more. "We are Greek goddesses! We do not pay for our food. Especially not this junk!" I pulled myself away from the chicken leg I was already inhaling.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, my mouth still full.

They both shuddered and headed towards the door. "Sorry Laina," Athena began, "The mortal world is just too disgusting. We're going to go back to Olympus. Goodbye now. Good luck on the rest of your quest." They each blew her a quick kiss before practically running out the door.

"Well that was rude." I said slurping up the last bite of chicken leg.

"They aren't the only ones." Laina growled. "I wanted that chicken leg."

"Get your own." I grumbled.

We ate in silence for a few minutes, finishing up all of the food, even Russel's portion.

"Wow," I said after a burp. "The one good thing about him quitting."

"I know, right?" She wiped her mouth and ran off to use the bathroom. When she got back it was already almost eight o' clock and we were both about to pass out. We tossed the trash lazily in the trash can and went to claim our beds. We got ready quickly and soon we were sitting together at the kitchen table, looking at the prophecy paper sitting in front of us.

"I don't get it." Laina groaned. "What the heck is a skeleton's song?"

She looked at me expectantly.

"Don't ask me, I'm just as clueless as you are. In fact, to be honest, all I can really focus on right now is the fact that I'm going to get to meet my mother tomorrow!"

Laina smiled. "I'm happy for you, Nic, I really am, but now we need to try to figure this out. I want to be prepared."

I snorted." Haven't you learned by now?"

She looked up from the slip of paper. "Learned what?"

"That never works. Prophecies cannot be prepared for." I held up the paper. "Things happen when they are supposed to happen, and, despite what you try to do, preparing just makes you even more nervous." I took a deep breath. I was literally about to fall over from tiredness. "We need to get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow."

Laina's eyes drooped and I could tell that that was all that she wanted to do.

"It's just… Whenever I read this last line, '_The daughter will do what's been done before,_

_To postpone, not end, a terrible war_.' I get these goose bumps. It's as if I know what the line means but I just can't figure it out!"

"I know what you mean. That's how I feel about Russel's secret."

I realized my mistake a second after I said it.

"What?" Laina asked.

"Nothing, nothing." I stated. "Come on, we need to get into bed."

We walked together into the room with the bunk beds and we both took the top bunks.

"Goodnight Nico." she said quietly.

"Goodnight Laina."

Within a minute or two I heard her slow breathing, proving that she was asleep. I decided to follow in her footsteps. Tomorrow would be the most exciting day of my life, I just new it. I was going to go down to the underworld, meet my dead mother, and finally, _finally_, see my dad acting like he used to.

I settled down into my flower scented covers, brushed a bug off my shoulder, and promptly fell asleep.

If only I knew what was going to happen over the next few days, maybe I would've savored the peace a little more.

**I am ecstatic. Because? The boring chapters are over! Yay! I've been waiting to get to here for ages. My darned problem with writing **_**short **_**things will not keep me away from my favorite scenes for much longer! Hurrah!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Alright, this is officially the longest post EVER. I know it took awhile but this thing is like, 7000 words. This is also the most exciting chapter so far so tell me if you like it.**

_**Laina's POV**_

**The Light is Changed**

I woke up in a cold sweat, from a night full of blood, zombies, and Robert Pattinson with a beard. Terrible, I know. The moth on my face didn't help the matter, nor did the spider on my arm. I let out a gargled scream, sat upright in bed (hitting my head on the stupid low ceiling), and hastily shooed them away.

The sky looked bright blue out the window, but then again, you couldn't see much through the dirt. Nico was leaning up against his pillow, Twilight propped up on his knees.

I shuddered recalling last night's dream.

"You're still reading that?" I asked.

He looked up, seeming surprised that I was awake. "What? Oh, yeah I am, why?" He tried to nonchalantly wipe a tear from his eye.

"Gosh, you're a slow reader."

"Am not!" he defended. "I just don't always feel like reading it. Chiron gave away almost everything that was going to happen in the book, in one of his lessons."

I found it funny that he seemed to be very disappointed about this.

"Really?" I asked. "He didn't even let you finish it?"

He blushed a little. "Well, actually I was a little behind and he thought I had already gotten to the end."

"A_ little_ behind?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, _a lot_ behind."

I laughed. "What was he talking about in his lesson?"

He slipped the side of the book cover in as a bookmark and stretched. "He taught us all about the ways of avoiding getting bitten. He said that a strong magical being could drink the Empousa blood out of its victim, like vampires can do in Twilight."

I faintly remembered that happening. I hadn't read Twilight in ages.

"That's so cool!" I exclaimed. But wouldn't the being who drank it out become a vampire?"

He shook his head. "Not if they have enough magical blood in them. The good blood will overrule the bad. Unfortunately, unlike how it is for the vampires, for gods and such, blood tastes absolutely disgusting so this tactic is not usually used."

I nodded and pulled my hair out of its messy ponytail. "You know, you speak about these vampires as if they're actually real."

I had intended to embarrass him but it didn't work.

"Actually, that's another thing Chiron told us. Much like how Rick Riordan recorded Percy's life, Stephanie Meyer recorded Bella's. The _real _Bella. Not Kristen Stewart."

"Whoa! I didn't know that. So those policemen people who kill the things that don't obey them, they're real too?"

He nodded. "But luckily they don't usually involve themselves with the gods. Two separate words, pretty much."

"I guess that's good." I pushed the blanket off my legs and turned to go down the ladder. "So everything that happened in those books was real? Every last bit."

"Well," he said, "Almost all of it. She had to change a few things, you know, secrecy reasons, but the main events happened."

"That's freaky."

"I know."

I stepped down my ladder.

When I read the Twilight Saga I had thought of it as just another series to read. I found it to be very romantic but also very disgusting and gory. The fact that all of that romance and gore was _real _was just a little more than I could handle. I shuddered again before walking into the kitchen.

Lucky for us, Russel had been smart enough to leave his backpack so we had a few granola bars to eat for breakfast. We ate silently at the kitchen table, trying to ignore the terrible smell that we hadn't gotten used to overnight. When we finished breakfast we quickly got ready before packing up our things and heading out the door.

The air outside smelled amazing and we both breathed huge breaths as soon as we were out.

"Hallelujah." Nico said, smiling and looking up to the sky. "I thought we would never make it out of that place."

"Yeah," I sighed, "But now we have the challenge of getting to the underworld."

He made a 'pft' noise. "Challenge? I can just shadow travel us there."

"Oh no!" I backed away from him. "I am _not _going to carry you around like Russel did."

"I'm not gonna pass out." He groaned exasperatedly. "I only have to take _you_ this time, so it's not as tiring."

"No." I stood in front of him with my arms crossed.

"Alrighty then," He said, his voice sounding fake and childish. "I'll shadow travel there myself and you can have the honor of walking _alone_ to the nearest entrance."

I scowled. "That's not fair. If I walk you're coming with me."

He laughed evilly. "And if I shadow travel you're coming with _me_." He grabbed my wrist and yanked me over to a shadow of a tree.

I only had enough time to yell, "Hey!" before I was gone, spiraling through space, heading directly towards Hell.

We landed gracelessly in a pile on the ground. I had banged my shoulder pretty badly and I was about ready to pulverize Nico. I opened my eyes to see sky. Well, not really. It was the weirdest color, looking almost as if someone had poured red food coloring into the blue that used to be our sky. The air was musty and I found it hard to breath. I felt neither hot nor cold, which was surprising. People usually think of the underworld as being hot.

I pulled myself off the ground and cleaned the dirt off my cheek and arm. Nico was getting up beside me, a smirk on his face, obviously proud of getting us here.

"Wipe that smile off your face, Death Breath. That hurt."

"Sorry." He stated, not sounding sorry in the least. "Let's head over to the castle. My dad and mom are probably there."

He jumped up, not even bothering to wipe the mud off himself, and took off across the dirt. When I had gotten myself off the ground, I was able to actually examine the place where the dead lived (hehe, oxymoron). It was mainly dirt and dead trees but when I looked around carefully, I was able to see the faded form of ghosts, moving about. They hovered around in the air, in almost every spare space. I couldn't see their actual solid forms, they were more just blobs of white that had humanlike qualities, but I knew they were there.

Their presence freaked me out a little though, and I ran to catch up to Nico who was practically foaming at the mouth from excitement.

"Don't these ghosts scare you at all?" I asked between gasps of air.

"Naw," he responded, "The actual spirits are much creepier."

He weaved in and out of trees and eventually I saw people in the distance.

Well, almost people.

As I got closer I was able to recognize that they were in dark black cloaks. Their skin was a chalky white and their eyes seemed to dart back and fourth, faster that the livings' eyes would. Each face had a different expression of sadness.

It was a terrible thing to watch and I tried to look at something happier, but down in the underworld, no matter what you look at, you feel depressed.

Now that we were in the main part of the underworld, I was able to see much more than I had before. Thousands of spirits stood in line. At the front of the line was a table with three judges and behind the judges was the giant, three headed dog, Cerberus. If I looked past Cerberus I could see all of the average dead grazing in the Fields of Asphodel. To the right of the Fields was a huge black castle, too far away for me to really examine. To the left was a place that looked like the devil's version of Wipeout.

The Fields of Punishment.

I could hear the screams from all the way across the land. I remembered all of the torturous ideas that Hades had come up with and shuddered before looking away.

I looked to the left of the Fields of Punishment and was happy to see the Isles of the Blest, or Elysium. I remembered all of the heroes from the books and hoped that each and every one of them got to go there. It gave off a friendly aura, the only one in the entire underworld, and I ached to go there.

But apparently Nico had other ideas.

He jogged past Cerberus, gave the dead a few high fives and took off towards the dark looming castle. I pushed my way through the dead souls in the line, trying desperately not to think about who I was touching, and ran to catch up. We passed the River Styx and continued going. My head was spinning and my legs ached. I had never liked running, much.

We approached the huge castle and I gulped. It was decorated in skeleton skulls and weapons. We got to the gate that guarded it and I saw all of the torture pictures that Percy had talked about in The Lightening Thief. Although they were only stick figures they seemed very realistic. I hurriedly followed Nico past the squeaky gate and inside.

The second I set foot in that freaky castle, I knew I had made a mistake. The place was buzzing with skeletal servants and dead souls. The main hall was decorated with different symbols of the dead. Nico pushed past the servants, leading us over to an elevator in the back guarded by two skeletons with huge axes.

"Hey Jane. What's up Don?"

The skeletons gave him a quick nod and clicked their teeth.

"Gotcha." He said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little white card. He showed it to the skeletons and they nodded before stepping out of the way and moving their axes to the side.

"Have a good day." Nico said as he led me into the elevator.

The skeletons gave him a few parting clicks before the door was closed and we were left listening to Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi.

"That was… Interesting." I said after a moment or two of silence.

"Yep. Interesting is our specialty in the underworld." He whistled along to the song until the doors opened again. When they did, I was surprised to see that, despite the black wallpaper and R rated decorations, the place was set up like a real house. We had arrived in a hallway that bridged off to three different rooms and a door that led to a staircase was next to us. The sign next to the staircase read. "_In case of a zombie apocalypse, please take the stairs._"

"This is as far as the elevator will go." Nico said. "Follow me."

He walked eagerly up the stairs and I had to run to keep him in sight. When we finally got to the top I was panting like Cerberus and sweating like Jack. We were in the living room and next to us was the kitchen. A couple was sitting together on the couch, laughing and joking happily. When they heard us they turned.

One of them was obviously Lord Hades. He had longish black hair and black eyeliner, much more professional than Nico's. He had wide eyes that looked like black holes and his pale face made him seem even creepier. Next to him was a pretty woman, who I supposed was Mrs. Di Angelo. She had a kind face with beautiful hazel eyes that were almost identical to Nico's. Her long brown hair was pulled up in an elaborate bun. She was wearing a pink flowered shirt and khaki pants.

Lord Hades stood up and I realized that he was wearing a long black robe. Ninja-like, almost.

"Nico?" Hades asked.

"Hey dad." Nico said.

Hades opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsure of what to say.

Nico looked at me. "Here's your daughter."

Hades smiled at me but then looked at Mrs. Di Angelo. "And here's your mother."

She got off the couch and stared at Nico, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.

"Nico," she whispered. "My son."

He ran over to her and hugged her. It was the sweetest thing. Mother and son meeting each other after being separated for years.

She stroked his long hair. "_Il mio il mio,_ I thought I would never be able to see you again."

I noticed that she had a strong Italian accent.

"I know." Nico said.

They broke apart and sat on the couch, chatting aimlessly about what had been going on. Hades walked over to me and gave a small smile.

"Hello Laina." He nodded.

I snorted. "You gods are so formal. Hey dad, what's up? How's it hanging?"

He chortled. "Exactly as I remember you."  
We talked together for a few minutes before Nico and Mrs. Di Angelo invited us over to the couch to talk with them.

"And then Silena says to me, _'Oh my goodness! You're Nico's mom!'_ and I tell her, _'You knew him?'_ and she tells me, _'Yes! I fought with him against Kronos!'_

I was so happy, Nico, to find out that you were still well. After hearing about Bianca I wanted to know that you were alright." She smiled and I noticed suddenly how white her teeth were.

"How is Bianca?" Nico asked.

"Oh," Mrs. Di Angelo exclaimed. "She is _fantastico_. After hearing about you from Silena she was very excited. She still talks to her and that boy, Beck-something? Anyway, she talks to them about you all the time."

Nico's face lit up.

"How about you?" Mrs. Di Angelo asked, turning to me.

"Oh!" I said. "I'm Laina, Nico's friend." I shook her hand. "We're on a quest together. It just worked out that we were able to come and see you."

She nodded. "It worked out very nicely didn't it?" She half whispered. I noticed that her accent didn't seem as strong. I found it a little creepy, but nodded anyway. Mrs. Di Angelo opened her mouth to say something, but it never came out. Before she could even start, her image flickered like some sort of a bad connection. She disappeared for a second and the last I saw of her she had a glum expression on her face.

Hades groaned. "That's the fifth time it's happened today!"

"What's going on?" Nico asked.

"I have no idea." said Hades. "Every now and then she'll just flicker. Now watch, she's going to come back."

Sure enough, Mrs. Di Angelo appeared in the same position only a millisecond later.

"Mom?" Nico asked.

"I'm fine, _bambino_." She said. "Do not worry."

"What just happened?" I asked.

She sighed sadly. "It's nothing to worry about. It's just…" She trailed off.

"Tell us what's happening mom?" Nico insisted.

She shook her head. "I… I just don't have enough power." She complained. "I am still dead, my dears! Being in my husband's castle only makes me _seem _alive. I am not really. But, being here takes a lot of energy, and because I do not have much power… _Oh mio_… I don't think I will be able to stay for very long."

"I told you," Hades said softly, "You can have some of my power. I know how to send it to you."

She shook her head. "No. No, honey. That would be uncomfortable. It would make me a blood relative to you and I don't want to marry a blood relative. It would have to be someone else. Someone powerful who isn't blood related to you."

Hades scratched his head. "My family is selfish, my dear. All of them. They wouldn't be willing to give up any of their power."

Mrs. Di Angelo looked at each of us in turn, though her eyes rested slightly longer on me.

I understood almost immediately.

"It's me, Lord Hades! _I _have to give her power!"

They all looked at me and I saw a smile slowly spreading across Mrs. Di Angelo's lips.

"Oh, I couldn't ask that from you." She said, though I could tell it was a lie. "I barely know you."

I shook my head, intent on helping. "Nico is one of my only friends. If I can help his mother I will."

She came over and gave me a hug. "Thank you, my dear. You are an amazing person."

Nico smiled bigger than ever. "And it makes sense, too. That prophecy line.

_She'll see the lonesome in a daft old soul,_

_And bring life to the person burned into coal._

She will basically, give you life. Make you actually alive, not just partially. And afterwards, Hades will give you his blessing. It will all work!" He smiled really big. "Thank you!"

I felt myself blush. "It's nothing. So, how am I supposed to do it?"

Hades walked over to me. "First off, you need to concentrate on a small portion of each of your powers. Remember, you are not giving her _all _of it, just _some_. Enough for her to be alive."

He acted calm but I could see the excitement in his eyes.

"Then, you need to look at her and picture this power coming out of you and into her. If you do it right then she should receive the power. After that, I will give you you're blessing and we can get some lunch."

I nodded. It was a lot to take in but simple enough. When this whole process was over, yes, I'd have less power than before, but Nico would be happy and so would Hades. I would still be an immortal child of all of the gods. It wasn't too big of a difference.

I stood in front of Mrs. Di Angelo and focused on each of my powers. I felt something stirring inside and I suddenly felt as if I were holding a ticking bomb that I could either deactivate or throw. Maria gave me an excited smile and I tried to smile back but it took too much energy. I was getting very tired very fast.

I continued my concentration and focused on getting that little bit of power into Mrs. Di Angelo. My eyes began to hurt so I closed them and continued my concentration. I head a gasp.

"Don't close them!" Mrs. Di Angelo shouted.

"It will still work." said Hades. "As long as she keeps concentrating."

I opened my eyes any way and I saw the uneasy expression on Mrs. Di Angelo's face.

But the process had already started.

I saw a streamline of power escape my body and weave its way into Mrs. Di Angelo's. A big smile appeared on her face and I figured that she felt like I felt when the gods gave me their blessings. I watched the power go into her but at the same time, made sure that I didn't lose too much. I didn't want to be completely powerless.

A small subsection of power worked its way away from the main stream and I felt my eyes widen.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

It disappeared through the wall and I could only hope that it didn't give anything power that wasn't supposed to have power.

Eventually, I got the river to stop leaving me and the world came back. I had felt as if I were in some sort of parallel universe. I still felt good and goddess-like but a little less powerful. Before I had begun, I had been on Apollo, and I was glad to find that now I wasn't quite so full of myself. My eyes were all droopy and I felt like I hadn't slept in days.

"Laina, are you okay?" I heard Nico ask. My head was still spinning and my stomach felt nauseous.

To answer his question, I fell in a heap on the floor.

I woke up on the couch, a cup of ambrosia on the table next to me. Nico was watching T.V. at the other end of the couch and he had a pillow on top of my feet that he was using as an armrest.

"Umm." I said.

Nico looked over. "Oh, you're awake." He moved the pillow. "Hey, at least now you know why I passed out yesterday."

"No," I grumbled. "This is different. I gave up a lot of my power. You still had all of yours."

"Whatever. My mom's making dinner. She's so happy. She's got this smile on her face that won't go away." He pushed a button on the remote control. "Thanks."

I smiled, feeling proud of myself. "No problem."

I joined him in watching 'So You Think You Can Dance' for a little while until Mrs. Di Angelo called us in for a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Hades watched and talked with us while we ate, smiling at Mrs. Di Angelo the entire time. When we were finished, we brought our bowls to the sink and headed to Nico's room where we were going to spend the night.

"Come on." he said. "We can set up a mattress or something for you."

"Okay, thanks."

We walked over to the steps but Nico stopped me just before it.

"Wait." he said quietly. "I want to show you something.

He ran back into the other room and came back a minute later with a stepping stool. He placed it on the ground, stepped on it, and pulled down an attic door that I hadn't noticed before.

"Dad took the cord off." he said, unfolding a ladder. "He was worried about intruders."

"Does anyone else know about this door but you two?" I asked stepping out of the way of the steps.

"Dad, me, mom, Persephone, Demeter, and a few skeletons. Bianca never saw it."

"That stinks." I stated.

He nodded.

He motioned for me to go up the ladder, and then followed himself. When I got to the top it was very dark but Nico pulled a cord and a single light bulb turned on. He yanked the trapdoor back up and motioned for me to be quiet.

"Dad might want to be the first one to show you this." He whispered. "He gave you his blessing while you were asleep."

I looked down at my bracelet and, sure enough, a black charm with the name 'Hades' was lit up. I switched it back to Apollo before looking around.

The room was fairly big for an attic. Cement floor and paneled walls; not very interesting on its own. It was the furniture that caught my attention. There were six thrones in the room and each of them was elaborately decorated. They obviously represented different people. I was able to recognize Nico's Hades's and Demeter's but the others were hard to tell.

"Ones mine, the next one's Bianca's, the other ones mom's, after that is Dad's, then Persephone's, and lastly is Demeter's."

He motioned to them as he spoke. I was able to see the personality in each of them.

"I think he's going to make you one." He said. "I mean, technically you're his daughter."

It was a nice thought but Hades didn't seem like the type. "I'm on Apollo right now, but yeah." I said.

He stretched, obviously tired.

"I think he missed you when you were gone too." He sat down on his throne. "When my Dad was all… Depressed, he came up here. Once I caught him sitting on my mom's throne."

He sounded a little confused.

"That makes sense," I said. "He missed her."

He shrugged. "Well yeah, but he never sat on Persephone's."

"Well, he probably likes your mom more." I reasoned. "To be honest, I do too. She never pushed me in a river."

Nico laughed softly but I could tell his heart wasn't in it. He was concentrating.

"I just sort of wonder…" he trailed off.

"What do you wonder?" I prodded.

He rested his chin in his hands. "Well," he began, "Why did my dad kidnap Persephone in the first place? I mean, seriously. He's the Lord of the Dead, he doesn't like flowers!"

"Maybe he thought she was pretty." I suggested.

"I guess." He leaned back on his chair. "I just sort of thought that maybe he was…" he shook his head.

"What, Nico? Come on."

He sighed. "Well, lonely. Even before my mom died. Maybe he just wanted a wife and when he found out about Persephone he saw his chance and took it. Maybe, he didn't actually love her."

I walked over and sat on the ground in front of him. "I don't know, Nico. It's definitely possible. But, from what the Greek myths say, Persephone had this calming effect on him. Made him go easier on the dead."

He shook his head. "I think Persephone has that effect on _everyone_, not just my dad. I was just thinking, that maybe when he saw my mom he realized that she was who he _really _wanted to be with. Not just who he wanted there with him to make him feel less lonely. I kind of thought that maybe, my dad has been lonely his entire life."

We were silent for a moment.

I had to admit, it was an interesting theory. Hades just didn't strike me as the lonely type before I heard about all his depression. He seemed so content with being alone. I found it weird to think of him as being sad.

"I guess I see what you're saying." I said eventually. "I mean, he really does love her, I can see it in his eyes."

He smiled. "Yeah, I love watching the way he looks at her."

I chuckled. "You never struck me as being such a softie. I always thought of you as the quiet kid who likes hanging out by himself."

He laughed and stood up. "I guess I was kind of like that. Not anymore, though. Now that my mom's alive I should be able to spend more time with my real family, you know? Even though my dad can still be a little harsh, I think my mom will help him out." He looked down at his shoes. "I… I know I've already said this more than once, but thanks a million for giving some of your power to my mom. It really means a lot." He looked down at me and met my eyes, and for once I saw more than just a hazelish pit of death that I usually saw in them. This time, I saw happiness.

Happiness that I had ever seen in Nico before. Granted, he was always goofy and funny, but I had never seen him acting so blissful.

After a moment I smiled back at him. "No problem, bud. It was nothing."

He held out his hand to pull me up and I grabbed it. He pulled me up off the ground into a quick hug.

"It's kind of funny," he said after we were apart. "Being around my mom makes the Italian side of me show a little more. I've had odd cravings for pizza ever since I saw her."

I giggled. "_Il moi il moi_ Nico!" I said.

He rolled his eyes jokingly. "It's,_ il mio, il mio_."

"Yeah, yeah, same difference. I'm not Ital -"

An urgent knocking at the door cut me off, mid-sentence.

Nico and I exchanged glances. It was most likely Hades telling us to get out of the attic.

"Who is it?" Nico asked uncertainly.

"_Clickityclickclick!_" They said.

Nico smiled. "Come on up Ronald."

The trapdoor was pulled down and I heard the sound of Ronald's bones running hurriedly up the stairwell. As soon as he got to the top, he began a long strand of various clicky noises.

"Whoa there!" Nico said. "Slow down Ron, I can't understand a click you're saying."

"_Clickety clack clack clarckety click clack click!_" Ronald chattered.

"Dude." Nico mumbled. "Come on, form words here."

"_Clarketish clickety clecken clickety clack! Cliken clickety clack clackity clickety clack…._" He continued his jabbering and soon added frantic hand motions, causing his joints to frequently pop out of place, making him sound like, "_Clickety *bring!* clarketish cluckity clack *bring!* cuclick!_"

I began to laugh. "Does he always talk like this?"

Nico shook his head, holding back a fit of giggles. "Nope. I can't understand a thing he's saying. The only other time this had happened was when the potty pit began to overflow."

"I'm sorry, the what?"

"Never mind."

Ronald jumped up and down, looking absolutely ridiculous.

"You know?" I began, "It kind of sounds like he's singing!"

Nico looked over at me. "What? Oh hey, you're kinda right. Hold on a minute-"

"_*BRANK*_"

Ronald fell on the floor in a million pieces.

**...**

Nico and I stared at him for a few moments before either of us talked.

"Well," I said, "That was interesting."

"Ugh," He groaned, "I _hate_ it when they do this. It takes _forever _to piece them back together."

We kneeled on the ground, trying to organize Ronald's body parts.

"But hold on." Nico said. "What was that last thing you said before he broke?"

"Uhhh, I asked you what the pit was."

"No, no, after that."

I wracked my brain. "I said he sounded like he was singing."

Nico looked immediately up at the faint light bulb with the long cord attached.

"What?" I asked. "How is that important?"

He shook his head. "I swear. You have the memory of a squirrel."

"Shut up. What am I forgetting?"

He took a deep breath. "_The old acquaintance will admit his wrong, and the light will change during the skeleton's song_. Sound familiar?"

I gasped. "The prophecy line! But the light didn't change. And no old acquaintance admitted his wrong."

He nodded. "Yeah, what about Russel?"

"He never told me what he did wrong." I pointed out. "And it's not like anyone knew him before, so he couldn't be an _old acquaintance._"

"Right." He shook his head in confusion. "I just wish I knew what light just changed."

I placed part of Ronald's spine carefully next to his neck. "Are you sure that was the skeleton's song?"

"No." he said. "We have regular clicking concerts down in Elysium every Friday." He paused. "Yes, I'm sure that was the song!"

"Jeez," I muttered. "You don't have to be so rude about it."

"Whatever. Come on, let's go investigate."

I looked around the dark empty room. "Where?" I asked.

"I don't know," he growled, "The rest of the castle."

"No duh, Sherlock. I meant _where _in the castle."

He shrugged. "Everywhere."

"Genius." I uttered sarcastically.

"Elementary, my dear Watson. Elementary."

I pushed him out of the way and climbed quietly down the stairs.

When we had both gotten to the bottom, we walked together into the family room. Hades was sitting there on the couch, remote in his hand, flipping through the television shows.

"Haha! Dance, puny mortal!"

"Lord Hades?" I asked.

He looked over. "Oh, hello, you two. I thought you were going to bed."

"We were." Nico said quickly. "I was just wondering, um, where's mom?"

I looked around the room and sure enough, she wasn't there.

"She's in the bathroom." said Hades, and went back to the T.V.

Nico leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I'm going to go get her. She'll be more help than my dad."

I nodded and he left.

"So…" I said, sitting down on an open armchair.

"What was that you two were whispering about?" Hades asked.

"Uhhh," I stuttered. "Nothing. He just didn't like the T.V. show you were watching."

I winced at how terrible of a lie that was.

Hades realized it too. He snorted. "Cute. I know it was about you two dating."

I choked on my own spit. "What?"

He chuckled. "I _know _you two are dating, Laina. Don't even try to defend yourself."

"Lord Hades, that is absolutely ridiculous, I-"

"Well then explain why you aren't using my charm." He looked and met my eyes, a teasing sparkle in his.

"That's not fair." I growled. "I'm only on Apollo because-"

"Why hello again Laina." A voice cut me off.

I looked around the room and nearly screamed when I saw The Lord of the Sky floating in mid air behind me.

"Zeus?" I asked in astonishment.

He chuckled. "Gave you quiet a little scare there, now didn't I." He smiled proudly. "Tis' one of the many things I do well."

Hades gave the god a hard stare. "Now, what in the underworld gives you the right to send an Iris message to my home and scare my daughter to death?"

Zeus sighed and gave his brother a disapproving headshake. "Brother, brother, no need to be angry. I just came to check up on _my_ daughter."

Hades snarled. "She's not your daughter yet, _Zeus_. You haven't given her your blessing."

"Not yet, I haven't." Zeus's picture moved around in front of us.

I got the impression that gods had the power to control IM's.

"But I'm up next, aren't I Laina?"

I looked into Zeus's eyes, afraid to tell him that we were planning on going to Poseidon next. "Uhh…" I stuttered.

Hades laughed. "See Zeus, she doesn't even _want _to be your daughter. They were probably planning on skipping you altogether."

I opened my mouth to object.

"Daaaad!" Nico called from the other room. "I need your help!"

Hades gave Zeus one last glare before getting up off the couch. "What do you want, Nico?" He stalked out of the room.

Zeus looked at me for a few moments, expecting me to say something. I cleared my throat.

"Umm, thanks, Lord Zeus, for letting Hades bring Mrs. Di Angelo back. He's really happy. I know it doesn't seem like it, but he really is."

Zeus slapped his hand down on something I couldn't see. "That's what I've been forgetting to do. Tell him he can go ahead and bring her back."

I looked at him, puzzled.

"What?"

He shook his head. "I knew that there was something I've been forgetting to do. Sorry about that. He can go right ahead."

I put my hands up. "Hold on. You already told Hades he could bring Mrs. Di Angelo back to life, remember?"

Zeus shook his head. "No, I was going to, but it slipped my mind these past few days."

"But… But that doesn't make sense." I insisted. "She was here ten minutes ago. You must have forgotten that you already did it."

"Nope." Zeus said. "I know for a fact that I forgot. I haven't given it a second thought since I talked to you and Nico about it a few days ago through that IM."

I was about to say something but Nico and Hades came back before I could.

"Hey Laina, have you seen my mom?" Nico asked.

"No, but Zeus is saying that he never gave Hades permission to bring back Mrs. Di Angelo."

Nico stopped short and Hades crashed into him.

"What? Dad, is that true?"

Hades nodded. "Yeah, he never told me to bring her back to life." He looked around the corner into the kitchen. "Maria? Where are you?"

I looked from Nico, to Zeus, to Hades. Something was wrong here. If Zeus never gave Hades permission…

"Hades," I began, "How did you know that it was okay to bring Mrs. Di Angelo back to life if Zeus never told you?"

Hades checked the attic. "I didn't bring her back to life." He yelled from up there. He clomped down the stairs. "She just arrived at my doorstep one day- Maria!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. When there was no answer he gave a pitiful squeak that Lords of the Dead should not make, and collapsed sadly on the couch.

"What do you mean she arrived at your doorstep one day?" Nico asked.

Hades frowned. "Just ask Zeus. He's the one who sent her."

Zeus looked up. "No I didn't. I forgot, remember?"

Hades sat up straight. "Wait. Then who sent Maria up to my castle?"

We all looked at each other.

I half expected someone to jump up and say 'oh wait, it was me!' or 'sorry I forgot!' but nobody did.

"Let me get this straight." I began. "Nico and I thought that Zeus told Hades to bring Maria back to life. Zeus forgot about Maria and didn't tell Hades to bring her back. Hades found Maria at his doorstep one day and thought that Zeus had sent her as a gift. Am I correct?"

They all nodded.

"But that doesn't make sense, I-"

"_Please insert one drachma._"

I looked over at Zeus's Iris Message window. He shook his head.

"It's coming from over there. Mine is special, you don't need to pay." He gave Hades a _'ha!' _sort of look.

I looked over at a small fountain that was propped up against the wall. Sure enough, the next time it said "_Please insert one drachma,_" it was coming from over there.

I took out one of the golden coins that Aphrodite had given us when we left her apartment, and tossed it into the fountain. It disappeared after it passed some sort of boundary line and Chiron's image appeared.

"Chiron?" Nico and I asked at the same time.

"Hello Laina, Nico. I just wanted to make sure you were both alive."

Nico stared at him. "You've never done that on any other quest."

Chiron looked at me and for a second I saw some sort of sadness in his eyes. "Yes, on this one I was just a little curious as to what was going on." He looked around the room. "I see you have made it into the underworld, no wonder I have such bad reception." He continued looking around.

"We're just trying to figure something out." I said. The others nodded.

"What is it?" he asked. "Maybe I can help."

I told him everything that had happened since we'd gotten to the underworld (Hades glared at Nico when he got to the part about showing me the attic), and by the time I was finished he had a thoughtful look on his face.

"Are you sure you checked for her everywhere in the castle?" He asked after a moment of quiet thinking. "She could probably tell us how she got here."

Hades nodded. "Every little nook and cranny. And anyway, I know who's in my underworld without having to look around. She's not here."

Chiron bit his lip. "Where was she the last time you saw her?"

Hades thought for a moment. "She was sitting on the couch with me and she told me she had to go to the bathroom. A few minutes later Nico and Laina came down."

"You checked the bathroom, correct?" Asked Chiron.

"Yes." Hades said irritably. "I'm not stupid Chiron."

Chiron wisely did not respond.

"Did you find anything in the bathroom?" I asked.

Nico nodded. "Yeah, this weird cone thing. It's not mine and Hades says it's not his."

"That's Lord Hades to you." Hades growled.

His old personality was beginning to come back now that both of his wives were gone, I realized. Maybe Nico's theory was true.

"You know what?" he said suddenly, crossing his arms. "Why don't you all just leave. I'll look for Maria on my own. Laina Nico, you two can go get Zeus's blessing or whatever." He glared at Zeus as he said so.

"Hold on Hades," Chiron said.

"_Lord_ Hades."

Chiron pursed his lips, trying to keep from shooting a rude comment back at him. "Well then, hold on _Lord _Hades. Let me see this cone."

Nico held up a red cone that had the word 'cheer' written on the side. As soon as Chiron saw it, his eyes bulged.

"Oh no." He whispered.

Nico saw Chiron's face, looked down at the cone, and then his face adopted the same expression. "Chiron, you don't think…"

The centaur's shocked expression turned grim. "Yes Nico, I do. Almost all of it makes sense now."

"What?" I asked, "Do you know what's going on?"

Chiron ignored me and looked at Nico. "That battle, do you think she was the one to steal it?"

Nico nodded glumly. "It does make sense."

"I command you to tell us what's going on." said Zeus.

Chiron sighed and looked at me. "Laina," he began, "While you were still unconscious after being shot, a battle was going on. The Golden Fleece had been stolen and there was a line of monsters outside of camp. For some unknown reason they seemed to be protecting us from another group of monsters who were trying to invade camp.

We had this magical item stored in the attic. It was a shirt that can make you look like anyone else in the world. Nico went to go get it and when he got there he found that there was a demon up in the attic who had stolen it. He wasn't able to recognize who it was. Later, after she left, he found the fleece and was able to place it back on the tree. But she stole the shirt. Later that same day, a few Ares kids found a cheerleading bag in the woods."

"Hold on." I said. "Cheerleading? Does that have anything to do with the fact that this cone is used for cheerleading?"

"Yes." said Nico. "They both belong to Kelli."

"Kelli!" I said suddenly. "The Empousai from The Battle of the Labyrinth!"

Chiron nodded. "Yes, we think it might've been her who got into camp and stole the shirt."

"But wait," I said suddenly, a terrible thought having just appeared in my head. "If it is really Kelli who is wearing the shirt, pretending to be Mrs. Di Angelo, then who got the power that I sent her?"

There was a short moment of silence.

"Laina," Nico said weakly, "I think I know what light just changed."

Chiron stared at me with big bug eyes. "Laina, Kelli the demon is now in possession of almost half of your power."

**Told you it was exciting. Reviews would be nice!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Alright, I'll admit, I'm a little worried.**

**This scene was by far the funnest to type (I don't care if it isn't a word), but I don't know if I got the emotion right. So, sorry if I didn't.**

**By the way, I think I'm going to change my rating back to teen. I'm not sure though.**

_**Nico's POV**_

**Over My Dead Body**

The silence that followed that was so long that a neighbor would've considered us dead.

Laina had this terrible look of shock on her face that was mixed with dread and terror. Who could blame her? She was in a terrible position, that girl. I doubt that there is any demigod in the entire world who wants an already powerful demon to have nearly half their power. She was pretty much hopeless.

The first person to finally speak was Chiron.

"Laina," he said quietly. "I think you and Nico need to come back to camp tonight so we can have a meeting in person. We need to figure this out."

Laina gave a slight nod and, still caught in her daze, walked over to me. I gave my dad a weak nod goodbye and Zeus and Chiron logged off.

"Tell me," began Hades, his voice choked up, "When you find my wife."

He hit the off button on the T.V., threw the remote on the table, and gaited madly downstairs.

Laina buried her head in her hands. Her face was red and I could tell she was choked up just like Hades. She wasn't used to this sort of thing happening. She wasn't an experienced demigod. Over the years I had gotten accustomed to surprising changes in the story and terrible prophecies, but this was her first time.

And to be perfectly honest, she wasn't taking it too well.

She wiped her damp eyes and I patted her back.

"It'll be okay." I whispered. "We'll get your power back from Kelli."

She looked away. "Just get us home."

I obeyed and we shadow traveled to the big house. When we arrived, Chiron and Dionysus were sitting at the ping pong table where we had meetings, and Chiron was explaining the situation.

Hello Nico, Laina." He said as soon as he hears us enter the room.

"Hey Chiron," I said. Laina just looked away.

"Take a seat."

We pulled up two kitchen chairs and sat down.

"I was just explaining everything to Mr. D, here."

Dionysus grunted. "Seems like a dense thing to do if you ask me." He took a swig of Diet Coke and a little bit dribbled down his chin. "I would've been more careful."

Laina tensed, about ready to pummel him but I grabbed her arm just in time. "Stop it," I hissed, "We need to concentrate."

She gave Mr. D the death glare but he ignored her. Chiron continued.

"Why don't we take a look at this prophecy and see what we've completed already."

He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and placed it on the table. I reread the prophecy over and over again but I could only come up with two and a half lines that we had ruled out. We still had the whole thing about the acquaintance admitting his wrong, a formerly trusted person bringing a terrible fate, and the daughter doing something that had been done before.

"I guess we've made _some _progress." I pointed out.

"Yep," said Laina sarcastically, "We've ruled out all of the potentially good lines."

I let out a huff of breath. "Well excuse me for trying to be optimistic."

Chiron rubbed his temples before looking at me. "I hate to say it, Nico, but I think she's right. Look at this line, '_The daughter will do what's been done before, to postpone, not end, a terrible war._'"

"Yeah," I agreed. "We could at least end the war."

The centaur shook his head. "I meant the first part. Think about what's been done before to end a war." He raised his eyebrows.

I knew he was trying to hint at something but I just couldn't figure it out.

But then it hit me hard.

I whipped my head around and looked at Laina. She was just sitting in her chair staring off into space out the window.

"Oh no." I said quietly.

"Finally, he figures it out." Dionysus groaned.

Chiron watched Laina sadly. "I know Nico I'm hoping there is another answer." He gave me a sad smile.

His calmness infuriated me.

"You knew it all along." I stated dully.

"Nico, I could very well be wrong. I-"

I cut him off and snapped at him, "I can't believe you didn't tell us!" I stared at him in awe. All of these years of being my role model, my substitute father for when Hades was being a pain. He doesn't tell me, probably the most important thing that I would ever need to know in my teenaged life.

"It would've ruined your fun." He tried to reason.

I clenched my fists and I felt my muscles tense. "This is a quest, not a play date." I growled.

He stood up and tried to calm me down but it was no use.

"I cannot _believe _you just let us go through this quest like nothing were wrong. You knew the true meaning of that last sentence all along but you never told me. You never warned me." I looked away, knowing that my voice would crack any minute.

He closed his eyes. "And I regret that, but you have to see my reasons."

I stood up from the table. "I don't care about your cruddy reasons. I can't believe you would do this to me!"

I pushed my chair in so hard that heard part of the wooden seat crack. I grabbed Laina by the arm and practically dragged her out of her chair and through the door.

"Nico-" She tried to speak but I was too mad to listen.

How Chiron was able to keep such a terrible secret for so long, and how he took it so calmly, I did not know.

I couldn't let it happen.

I was sick and tired of prophecies ruling my life. All those useless lines of garbage that just make you dread the future. I just wasn't going to put up with it anymore. I pulled Laina out into the open air.

"What just happened?" She asked, her eyes tired and pitiful looking.

I shook my head, my thoughts still steaming. "Nothing. Nothing did happen and nothing is going to happen. You understand? You are going to go to my cabin. You are going to get into the spare bed that I never use, and you are going to sleep. And you are going to do that every single day for the rest of your life. Got that?"

She stared at me for a moment, speechless. Finally she just sighed. "If it will make you calm down." She held her hands up defensively, turned, and slowly walked towards my cabin, rubbing her eyes the entire time. I knew she was trying to keep me from seeing the tears trickling down her face.

It was amazing how fast a day could turn from being the best in my life, to one of the worst.

I uncurled my fingers. I had been keeping them clenched the entire time I was talking to Laina and they were turning a bright white. I opened and closed them a few more times before turning and walking off towards the lake.

The water was calm and quiet, and the moon's distorted image was reflected on the surface. I could see Percy and Annabeth laughing and playing together farther down the sand. If they could only see how lucky they were.

I took my shoes and socks off and placed them on the gravel walkway before pacing along the sand. It was about nine thirty or ten and the sand was nice and cool between my toes. I walked down and sat on the ground, just before the line where the water came up to. On nights like these the lake seemed more like a beach. I let the wind ripple through my chin length hair and I looked up at the night sky, still a little pink from the sunset.

"Kinda nice, isn't it?" said someone next to me.

I looked over with a start and was aggravated to find Jack sitting there next to me.

"If you're here to put another bruise on my face, then do me a favor and go away."

He gave a loud laugh and threw his head back. "Come on, an older guy can't come over to a younger guy and try to start a conversation?"

"Not if the older guy is you."

He was quiet for a moment and we both stared at the quiet lapping waves.

"You know," he began, breaking the silence, "You've got some pretty clever comebacks in you, kid."

I turned to look at him. That was probably the closest thing to a compliment Jack had ever given anyone.

I rolled my eyes. "Who are you?"

Jack chuckled. "Well, if you're referring to parentage, then I have no idea."

This sentence was followed by yet another awkward silence.

I remembered Chiron telling me that a little before we left. It must stink to have no clue who your Mom and Dad are, even with six siblings, it would be pretty bad. I turned around to say something but Jack was off in his own world staring at Percy and Annabeth who were goofing off down the beach.

His slightly-too-long hair was covering most of his eyes, but Jack seemed to be watching their every move.

"I'd say you're a son of Ares." I said after a moment of watching him.

The wind blew his hair back and I noticed a content smile on his face as he continued watching them.

"Jack."

He jumped and turned to look at me. "What? Oh, right. Ares." He coughed to clear his throat. "I'm not sure. I'm told that a lot but I… I have this faint memory of my Dad. Granted, I could be mixing him up with someone on a toothpaste commercial, but I think he was blonde."

I shrugged. "Gods can change their appearance, you know."

"Yeah," he said, "But this guy seemed friendly, and I don't usually associate Ares with friendliness." He stared off at Percy and Annabeth for a minute or two more before he frowned. "But if you ever tell anyone I told you this, I'll stick my arm right through your stomach."

I gulped, thinking about it. "Don't worry; I'll keep it a secret."

He gave a satisfied smile.

We watched Percy and Annabeth for another moment or two. Percy was in the water and he kept trying to spray Annabeth with a shoot of water. Every time he would send some towards her she would jump out of the way. Eventually Percy just sprayed it at her feet a bunch of times and I heard him saying, "Dance, Wise Girl, dance!"

Jack laughed and I was brought back to my senses.

"I'd better be going." I said. "We'll be off getting Poseidon tomorrow."

Jack nodded but he didn't look away from Percy and Annabeth.

I cleared my throat. "Umm, thanks Jack, for um, talking to me. I needed to calm down."

Jack tore his gaze away from the lovers for long enough to give me his crooked smile. "You tell anyone I'm a big softie my _foot_ will be through your stomach. How, 'bout that?"

I laughed and was happy to find that it actually felt real and not forced. I got up from the ground and wiped the sand off the back of my pants. I walked away from the beach feeling happy and refreshed.

There was _no way _that I was going to let that prophecy line happen. I had already lost my sister to one; I wasn't going to lose one of my only friends. No, this was going to be different.

I took one last look at Jack who was chuckling happily about something that Percy and Annabeth were doing, and then took off full speed towards my cabin.

The Harpies were patrolling as usual, and I had to duck behind a tree to avoid being seen. Apparently I stepped on a root, because the Nymph popped her head up and stuck her tongue out at me.

"Sorry!" I whispered.

She smiled and then let loose an ear curdling scream that would get the attention of every Harpy within the next fifty miles. I gave her a glare as I heard the terrifying sound of thundering feet and quack noises and she smiled before disappearing inside her tree.

"Stupid Nymph." I groaned and shadow traveled before she could whack me with one of her branches.

I appeared in front of my cabin. I took a deep breath before turning the doorknob.

Expecting Laina to be asleep, I tiptoed quietly into the room.

"Nico," said a dismal voice to my right.

I turned to look and nearly barfed up every single one of the organs in my body.

She was sitting on the spare bed, her feet hanging off the side. Her face was red and tearstained, but that wasn't what nearly killed me. She had a sharp silver knife in her hand and it was pressing into her finger already almost halfway through.

"I think I figured out that last prophecy line." She whispered.

_**Nico's POV**_

It was as if someone had let a lion loose in my head.

My thoughts blurred and I had absolutely no control over myself. Just seeing one of my best friends sitting on the side of her bed with a knife going into her finger, just made me want to destroy something. My room, the gods, all of it. But mostly Rachel. I couldn't believe she could allow such a terrible thing to be put in her head and spoken through her lips.

If there was one thing I was certain of, it was that I would not let Laina cut herself to pieces. Just because the first one did it didn't mean she had to. I looked carefully from the golden blood dripping off of her finger to the puddle of it on the floor. Laina rested her eyes on mine for a few seconds but then went back to pushing the knife through her skin. I saw her put extra force on it and she let out a gargled cry as more blood dripped onto the floor. Her hand that was holding the knife was so chalky white from gripping the thing so hard, that it seemed to be turning blue. Her bare feet were clenching the side of the bed. Tears streamed down her face and mixed into the puddle of blood on the floor. I recognized the knife she was holding as a non-magical one from the attic. It was so sharp it could go through almost anything. I knew that if I were to just touch the blade it would give a clean cut right through the skin.

It would have no trouble getting through her bone.

She pushed it even further and let out a scream that made goose bumps appear on my back and my arm hairs stand on end.

She caught her breath after a few struggled gasps.

"When I'm finished," she began through grit teeth, "I'm going to need you to spread my body parts all around the world." She winced and held her finger over the puddle to let some excess blood drip. "I can't allow the gods a chance to piece me back together."

More tears fell from her face and her voice rose on the word 'together'. She pushed the knife even farther in and her eyes widened as I heard the sickening crack as the knife pushed into her bone. She whimpered and her eyes did a crazy dance in their sockets.

My eyes were getting spotty and I felt as if I were watching a horror film. Only, this was real.

I saw Laina attempt to push the knife in more but it must've hurt too much; she stopped trying and just let herself bawl.

After a moment or two of seeing her in torture, I was finally brought to my senses.

I ran over to her and grabbed the knife out of her finger, trying desperately not to think about it. She cried even harder and it was interrupted by brief little gasps to catch her breath.

"N-N-Nico, g-g-giv-ve it back-k-k." she wheezed. "You're onl-ly p-p-p-postponing the p-pain." She reached for the knife with her normal hand but I yanked it away before she could grab it. She stood up from the bed and leaned around me. I had years of training experience, though, and was able to jerk my hand away just in time. Unfortunately the force of the tug caused the knife to slip from my grip and go flying towards the window, breaking the glass, and landing with a thud on the ground outside. Laina gasped and tried to run to the door.

Thank the gods I was faster.

I turned on my heel and sprinted blindly after her. I grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her hard against a wall. She let out a yelp of pain and stared at her finger that was now bleeding so hard that the blood was blocking the view of the actual cut. It was dripping quickly down her arm and onto my hand that was pinning her against the wall.

"I can't feel it." she gasped. "It's going numb."

Her eyelashes fluttered and I knew I had to do everything in my power to keep her standing up.

"Don't." I said sternly.

I was crying now too, I knew it. I could feel my eyes cheeks burning as the cheap eyeliner got mixed in with the salty tears.

"Nico, you need to let me." She whispered. "It's the only way to prevent Kelli from winning. If I die my power will too. She won't have the chance to do anything. You have to understand, it's the only way!"

I pushed her forehead back against the wall with a bang. I put my face merely inches from hers and stared into her terrified brown eyes. My heart was thudding so hard in my chest I could feel it in my fingertips; it was blocking all sound from entering my head except for my voice and Laina's. I couldn't think, couldn't process anything other than the fact that I was about to lose yet another person who was close to me. My eyes blurred from tears but I refused to let myself lose. I looked into those brown eyes that were now inches away from mine and did what I had been aching to do my whole life.

I let it all loose.

"No, Laina," I said sternly. "Absolutely not."

She opened her mouth to protest but I spoke before she could out as much as a peep.

"I am not going to let you kill yourself no matter what you think is right."

I lost my mother when I was just over two. I lived in a freaking casino for seventy five years, Laina!" I exclaimed as tears flooded my face. I took another deep breath and a few excess tears trickled down my face before I continued. "I lost my sister at age ten and to be honest I _still _haven't gotten over her." My voice had now risen to a shout. "I am not losing my best friend too. Because, you want to know what?" I demanded, screaming into her face. "That would just send me over the edge. You are not going to kill yourself like the first stupid Laina did. No. Damn. Way!"

I pushed hard on her forehead one more time to make sure that she stayed put and stomped over to her back pack that was lying on the floor. I pulled the half drained bottle of nectar out of it and poured it frantically onto her hand. The blood stopped coming out so hard and she stared at it in astonishment. I made sure every last bit of nectar was out of it before dropping the bottle onto the floor with a clang almost as loud as my yells.

I looked back over at her.

She was huddled against the wall, still in the position I had left her in. I saw with a start that the place where I had pushed her forehead was turning slightly purple. My heart rose to my throat. I had not meant to bruise her.

Her expression looked absolutely terrified and it took me a moment to figure out why.

She was scared of me.

Yes, she was still shaken from almost killing herself, but I could see the fear in her eyes. Me. The powerful, strong, outrageously fierce Laina was afraid of me. I didn't want her to be scared of me, but I had to stop that broken finger from getting worse.

"Put on Artemis." I demanded, still trying to calm myself down.

She obeyed and I yanked her over to the window that had been cracked by the knife, careful not to let her step on any glass shards. I grasped her arm with the hurt finger and held it up, angling it towards the moon. Almost immediately it had an effect and her wound slowly began to heal.

She pursed her lips and her eyebrows got all scrunched up as the cracked bone was sewn back together again. Slowly but surely, the skin was joining it's other half, and soon all that was left were the blood stains. I got a water bottle from our pack and poured the water on the cut. The blood washed off but I knew that her finger was still probably a little damaged. There was a first aid kit in the backpack and I made a splint to put on her finger.

Thank you, healing class.

I knew I should've gone to the infirmary to get it fixed properly, but I was too mad at Chiron to go right back to him and ask for his help. Plus, I had a terrible feeling that Chiron wouldn't have approved of my decision to save her. Nevertheless, the splint held fine and the wound didn't seem to need any more treatment. I gave Laina a painkiller just in case and got her some water to drink it down with. I did all of this without letting her leave my sight.

She was quiet the entire time. Not asking questions or trying to convince me to let her finish the job. Obviously, the pain had been too intense for her. When I was sure she was okay I led her over to her bed, once again, watching for glass shards, and had her wait while I swept up all of the broken glass. I pushed it all in the corner, deciding to worry about it later. I walked over to her bed, avoiding the puddle of blood, and held her hand just like Russel had done the night before he left.

"Nico, I'm so sorry." She said, her voice sounding broken and dead. Fresh tears sprung from her eyes, making even more trails on her puffy red skin. "I… I didn't know you were still mad about… Bianca" She said her name cautiously, probably worried that I was going to blow up again.

"I didn't think I was." I said quietly. I squeezed her hand once before letting go to pull her covers up over her. When she was snug, I sat down next to her on the bed. "I mean, I guess that seeing you about to…" I struggled to come up with the right words, "_Pass on_ just made the pain come back." My voice chocked up and for the hundredth time that night, I felt tears fill my eyes.

"It was stupid." She said quietly. "To think I would make things any better by killing myself."

I took a shaky breath and just looked at her. "I'm going to have to agree with you."

She leaned over and wrapped her arms around me. I could feel her tears soaking through my shirt, and her poor little heart beating fast, but I didn't care. All that mattered to me was that she was okay. We could be on Atlas's mountain fighting for Annabeth's life, in the Labyrinth completely lost and trying to find our way, even on the Andromeda awaiting our death by bear-men. Heck, we could be in any tale that I was part of or I had heard about. All that mattered to me at the moment was that we were both alive.

We stayed like this, locked in each other's arms, for a few more minutes before she finally spoke.

"The painkiller's making me tired."

I let go of her and she pulled away.

"Oh, right, sorry." I said. I got off her bed and fixed the part of her sheet that I had been sitting on.

When I looked up, I saw her watching me. Her eyelids were drooping and she looked about ready to pass out. She laid back down, resting her head on her pillow, and closed her eyes. I turned away to go get in bed.

"Wait, Nico."

I turned back around to look at her. "Yeah?"

She took a breath and I could tell she was struggling to keep her eyes open. "Thanks." she said quietly. "For saving me. I… I'm not ready to go yet."

I watched her for a moment and just listened to our slow breathing.

"I'm not ready for you to go, either."

I turned away for a moment to get some paper towels. When I turned back around she was asleep.

I wiped the blood up as best as I could before just placing an old shirt of mine on top of it. I was so tired that my head was spinning and my eyes were blurring. It had to be past midnight and I had had such a busy day. I made sure that every weapon in the entire room was placed under the trick floorboard in the corner of the room under a spare bedside table and retrieved the bloody knife from outside, before settling into bed.

My head was aching from lack of sleep but I dragged myself out of the comforter and stood up one last time as a realization hit me. As quietly as I could, I pulled the thin mattress off of my bed and put it on the floor next to Laina's bed.

That girl was not going to die.


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to post. School and stuff… Meh. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Hopefully one of the last (this thing is getting outrageously long). The good news is that I'm in the midst of going through all of my chapters, combining some, getting rid of annoying paragraphs, and so far I've made the first twelve chapters only seven. Yay!**

**But I really need a beta to help the narrowing process so if you know a good beta or if you are one and are willing to help me, I would appreciate a review or PM.**

_**Laina's POV**_

**The Return of Russel… For Two Minutes**

It really stinks to wake up before the person who saved your life.

I mean, there are so many decisions. You have to decide whether or not you should just leave them and go somewhere else, wake them up and if so, how? It's really not a fun position. But, as it turns out, I didn't have to worry about that for long, because as soon as I stepped out of bed, the world made the decision for me.

"Oof, Laina, could you get off of me?"  
I looked down and sure enough I was stepping right on the son of Hades's stomach. "Oh sorry." I lifted my foot up and jumped over him. "Why were you sleeping next to my bed?"

He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. "Just… You know…. To be extra cautious."

I sighed. He didn't have to do that, I mean, I wasn't going to try to kill myself again.

"Well, sorry for stepping on you."

"Naw, don't be sorry, it's fine."

I looked away from him, red in the face. Something about stepping on the guy who saved your life just a few hours ago, was little awkward. I shook my head and grabbed some socks and sneakers out of my backpack. I still had my clothes on from yesterday and had no desire to change them. Apparently Nico felt the same because he got shoes on as well and soon we were both walking together towards the dining pavilion.

The pavilion was as bustling and busy as ever with loads of campers walking around with their platters of food. I followed Nico over to the Hades table and picked up a plate of pancakes. We walked silently around the campers, and over to the brazier where we would sacrifice a portion of our food. I noticed curiously that he was avoiding Chiron's eye. I didn't quiet know why, but had a feeling it had to do with the argument they had last night that I was too dazed to listen to. Still, I walked alongside him and sacrificed a pancake.

'_To Lord Zeus._' I thought in my head. '_Please help me_.'

Nico made his sacrifice and we walked back over to eat. I noticed Annabeth eyeing me from the Athena table and felt my fists clench. I still felt mad at her for not letting me take her precious boyfriend on the quest. The fact that Russel had left us just made things worse. I turned to look at the Zeus table, hoping to see him, but my heart fell when I saw the empty seats. I finished my breakfast quickly, not tasting a bite, and went over to Chiron's table, Nico trailing quietly behind. The only people at the table where Chiron, Dionysus, and a small blonde camper who appeared to be crying.

I cleared my throat.

"Hello Laina." Chiron said turning around.

I nodded a hello. "Sir."

He looked from my blank face to Nico's. "I presume you are here to discuss the next step in your quest."

I nodded and Nico stirred behind me.

"Yes," began Chiron, "You may sit down."

We walked around to the opposite side of the table and sad obediently next to the crying little boy.

Chiron cleared his throat and motioned to the child. "This is Raymond Frederickson, child of Apollo, and Todd's blood brother."

Raymond let out a whimper.

"You may or may not know it," began the centaur, "But Todd is missing from camp."

Raymond cried out again and a few campers turned to stare.

"Todd." I murmured. "That name rings a bell. I think I might have met him before."

Chiron nodded in agreement. "He was one of the campers who helped nurse you back to health when you were shot earlier this summer."

A vision of a dirty blonde haired boy with pale blue eyes and a big smile appeared in my brain. "Right." I said touching the spot on my neck that had the brace, "I remember him now."

"He's missing?" Nico asked.

Chiron nodded sadly. "Yes. It's really a shame. He was an extraordinary healer."

Raymond let out a couple more sobs and I patted him softly on the back, not sure what else to do.

"Now onto your quest." said Chiron after a moment. "Which gods do you have left?"

I counted on my fingers. "Poseidon, Zeus, Hera, and Demeter."

Chiron nodded. "Good good, that's wonderful. All you need to get is Poseidon and then you can just go up to Olympus the get the remainder of them. Demeter is visiting her brother up there so things should be much easier."

Nico looked at him, his face bland and emotionless. "Do you have any clue where Poseidon is?"

Chiron scratched his head. "I have received word that he has a new girlfriend who enjoys skating."

I snorted. "Skating?"

Chiron chuckled. "Odd, I know. Then again, ice is technically frozen water. I don't know why on earth he would be attracted to her though."

"Do you know where ice rink is?" I asked.

Chiron nodded. "Yes, it is in New York, I believe."

"That's great!" I exclaimed. "Then we can go straight to Olympus."

"It does work out nicely." Chiron agreed. He gave us the address and I wrote it down on a piece of paper.

"So we'll be on our way." Nico said coolly, getting up from the table.

Chiron nodded. "Good luck you two. As soon as we get all of your blessings we can worry about this Kelli business."

I gave Raymond one last pat on the back before following Nico over to the nearest tree.

"The nerve of that man." Nico growled as soon as we were out of earshot. "Not even commenting on the prophecy line."

I looked down at my shoes, trying to figure out whether or not I should say what I was thinking.

"Not to choose sides or anything, but I think he just didn't want to get you riled again." I explained softly.

Nico glared at me. "Just shut up, okay? I don't want to talk about it."

I opened my mouth to argue that he started it and not to tell me to shut up, but he started the shadow traveling process before I could get out as much as a squeak.

We entered the ice rink in a bad mood. The place had been harder to locate than we had intended and by the time we were through the doors, Nico had a mustard stain across his shirt and my shoe was ripped. I could tell from the look on his face that he had never been in an ice rink before, so I put this to my advantage.

"Hey, why don't you get the Rink Lord's attention?"  
He gave me a puzzled look. "What?"

I snorted. 'What, you've never been skating before?" I took his silence as a no. "Oh, well you have to get the Rink Lord's attention. See him over there?" I pointed to a random man in a business suit. "Once he sees you he'll give you some skates."

Nico squinted at the man in the suit. "How do I get his attention?"

I rolled my eyes. "My Gods, you've _really _never skated before? You have to act like a chicken, duh."

Nico looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"

I glared at him. "Fine, if you want to skip Poseidon, we can. I just figured that after all of this hard work-"

"Alright, alright, I'll do it." He grumbled, cutting me off. He got on the floor and started waddling around, clucking like a chicken, staring at the man in the suit.

As you can probably guess, I was already dying of laughter by the time the manager guy came out to ask him if he was okay, and still dying of laughter, even when I was grabbed by the scruff of my neck by a red faced son of Hades, and led forcefully over to the place where we got our skates. I was still chucking as we laced our skates up and got mittens out of our bag.

"Idiot." was all I heard him mutter.

We finished getting ready and soon we were taking our first steps out onto the ice. I hadn't been skating in ages so I had a little trouble at first. Unfortunately for me, Nico actually wasn't too bad at it, so he proudly skated in circles around me. Eventually I got the hang of it and we were finally able to work on finding Poseidon.

"Do you see him?" I asked.

Nico looked around. "No. I'm not quite sure how we're going to find him, though. I mean, look at all these people." He motioned to the various groups of teenagers and adults thronging around us.

I sighed in agreement. "There has to be something different about him. I say we split up. You can look inside the rink and I'll walk around the outside."

He gave me a halfhearted thumbs up and skated away. I skated shakily over to the exit and stepped off gratefully, my ankles throbbing. I had no idea what to look for but I knew I had to find him. I walked along the wall, keeping an eye out for anyone who looked especially… Aquatic. I was just about to walk into the arcade when suddenly my head started spinning. I stumbled in my skates as the room began to sway.

"Are you alright?" asked a voice. I couldn't answer. My brain fogged up and suddenly I couldn't see. I felt myself slump against a wall as a face appeared in my brain. _Give it up_. The person said, a smile on their evil face.

"Who are you?" I mumbled out loud. I could hear the roar of the other people in the ice rink, but for some reason I couldn't escape this vision. _Give it up_. The demon repeated, baring her ugly fangs. I felt myself sink to the ground but I couldn't do anything about it. _You do not have a chance anymore_. The monster said as the world slowly began to come back to me.

"Is she alright?" Someone asked to the right of me.

"I don't know. She just fell over mumbling something."

"You think she's drunk?" asked another voice.

"Doubtful." The first one replied. She doesn't look sick.

"She's with me." said a strong voice that made my heart skip a beat. I opened my eyes and nearly cried out in happiness when I saw a familiar pair of electric blue eyes staring at me.

"Russel?" I choked.

"Shh!" he whispered, bending down to help me up. "I'm not supposed to be here."

He pulled me up off the ground and the men who had been watching me left.

"Where have you been?" I demanded. "Why did you leave? We were worried sick!"

He covered my mouth with his hand and looked around us cautiously. "You _have _to be quieter, Laina. I am putting myself in great risk by being here." His whispers were rushed and raspy and his accent was barely recognizable.

"I don't understand." I murmured back. "Why can't you be here?"

"That's not important right now." he said shaking my comment off. "Look, it's not safe here, you need to leave. The monsters are after you."

'What?" I exclaimed.

"Shh!" he hissed. "Just listen to me. Find Nico and get the heck out of here."

"I'm not doing anything until you tell me what's going on."

He clenched his fists and looked around wildly. "Look, Kelli's coming and she's coming fast. If she gets close enough to you she will kill you without a second thought. You need to leave before it's too late." He spoke so fast it took me a few more seconds to process what he was saying.

"I can't leave." I explained. "I need to find Poseidon and get his blessing. In fact, I see Nico with him right now." I looked over Russel's shoulder to see a smiling Nico leading a happy looking man with sparkly green eyes over to me. Russel, on the other hand, looked about ready to scream.

"No!" he hissed. "No, no, no! You need to leave now. Don't waste time on the stupid blessing. Don't even get your backpack. Argh! I don't have enough time." He grabbed me by my shoulders and barked demands into my face. "Get Nico and leave now. Tell Poseidon that you don't have time and that you'll get his blessing later. You need to leave!" he pleaded so soulfully it was sad. He turned around to look at Nico and Poseidon who were seconds away from being next to us, gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and then disappeared faster than I could blink.

"Russel?" I asked out loud, looking around myself. I was about to move when suddenly my eyes blacked out and the scary face filled my head again. _Listen to the thief._ They told me evilly. I was able to recognize her as female. _Leave now. Be a coward_. She laughed maniacally and I flinched.

"Laina?" I heard Nico ask. But I couldn't move.

"Get out of my head." I told the demon, falling to the ground once more. She just laughed again and slowly faded away.

"Laina!" Nico exclaimed. "This better not be another one of your tricks, because it's not funny." I opened my eyes and I saw Nico and Poseidon leaning over me, looking concerned.

"Laina?" Poseidon raised an eyebrow.

"It's not a joke." I grumbled, allowing Nico to pull me up. "Look, we need to get out of here. I saw Russel and he told me-"

"It's too late." said a sugary voice behind me. We both whirled around, expecting the worst.

"Arby's is closed, Derek." said the woman, ignoring us and walking over to Poseidon. "Apparently somebody stole some money or whatever and they had to close for the day." She held the Sea God's hands. "Do you think you could go out and look for somewhere for us to eat, Der Der?" She fluttered her eyelashes and Poseidon laughed.

"I think I can." He crooned.

Nico turned to look at me. "_Der Der?_" he mouthed.

"_Code name._" I mouthed back.

He nodded.

Poseidon leaned in to kiss her but Nico cleared his throat.

"Ehhem." He said, looking at them quizzically. '_Derek's_' face turned read and he broke away from the mysterious girl. "Oh – erm – sorry… Guys. This is Melinda, my new girlfriend."

Melinda smiled at us and waved. "Sorry to bust in like this." She twirled a lock of golden hair around a delicate finger. "I'm just _hungry_." She looked at me and smiled.

Poseidon chuckled happily, his smile bright and friendly. I wondered why I hadn't seen him. "I take it, that's my cue to go out and try to find somewhere to eat, eh?" he said.

She nodded and giggled.

"Sorry, Laina, Nico." he told us. "I think our meeting will have to postponed until I find somewhere for Miss. I'm-Always-Hungry, to eat at."

"That's alright." I said. "Nico and I actually have to be somewhere so I think we might have to catch you tomorrow."

Nico looked at me puzzled. "Where do we have to go?"

I looked from Nico to Poseidon to Melinda. "Uhh, Chiron called. He needs our help with something Todd related."

Nico shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a phone. "I have the phone and I didn't hear it-"

"Sorry to leave in such a rush, but we have to get going." I grabbed onto Nico's arm and tried to pull him away but it didn't work.

"Ouch! Alright, fine, we can go. But seriously, I have to use the bathroom. Can you show me where it is?"

I looked at Poseidon and Melinda who were staring at us. "Umm, yeah, it's through here. Bye P-_Derek_, nice to meet you Melinda!"

I dragged Nico away from them without giving them a chance to say goodbye. I pulled him into the room that was usually used for kids' parties.

"What's up with you today?" he asked as soon as we were alone. "Don't you want the blessing from your dad? And what was that you said about Russel?"

I reached for the doorknob and was disappointed that there wasn't a lock. "Look. Russel came by and warned me that Kelli was going to come and try to kill me. I have no idea why but what I do know is that we have to leave now. He made that pretty clear."

Nico crossed his arms. "And you believe him?"

I opened and closed my mouth a few times. "Yeah, of course. Why shouldn't I?"

Nico scratched the back of his neck, avoiding my gaze. "Look, don't take this personally, but you and I both have the tendency to be pretty gullible."

I stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

He put a hand on my shoulder. "Well, did it ever occur to you that maybe Russel was lying?"

I pushed his arm off my shoulder and glared at him. "Of course not! Russel's one of my best friends. He would never lie to me." I stared at his disbelieving face for a moment or two before blurting without thinking, "Not exactly what I could say about you!"

Nico stared at me, his mouth open and his eyes full of hurt.

Suddenly my heart sunk with guilt. "Oh, Nico, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. You're just as great as Russel, I was just mad. I-"

"Whatever." He mumbled with a shake of his shoulders. "I was just thinking that maybe you shouldn't put so much belief in the fact that Russel is good. I mean, I've had my suspicions from the start. And I thought it was really jerky of him to refuse to tell you what he is and why he needed to leave."

We were both quiet for a moment.

"I knew you had been eavesdropping."

"That's not the point! I was just thinking that maybe Russel isn't quite the great honest guy you think-"

"And he's not." said a voice.

We whirled around so fast we were blurs.

"Melinda?" Nico asked in shock. In our argument I guess we hadn't heard her open the door.

"Melinda?" She laughed an odd cackling laugh that sent shivers up and down my spine. "No no, that's not my name."

Nico and I looked at each other for a moment, each of our eyebrows raised, before speaking. "What?" Nico asked. "But that's what Po-"

"Well Poseidon is as clueless as a bunch of rocks."

We were quiet for a moment until suddenly it hit me.

"She isn't supposed to know his real name." I whispered.

Melinda – well, not Melina – shook her head. "I thought you would get it by now. Gods, and they call you a _goddess_?

I felt my face turn red with embarrassment.

"Don't insult her!" Nico growled giving her a death glare that could kill. Suddenly I felt really bad about what I had said about not trusting him.

"Nico, Nico, Nico." she crooned. "Such a cute little soul. But my, how I wish you were smarter."

"What is she talking about?" he asked.

Unfortunately the answer was beginning to form in my head.

"Would you like a hint?" She asked, closing the door behind her. "Your girlfriend seems to have figured it out."

My stomach flipped, for I had.

She walked in her taunting, slow manner over to us and soon her face was only inches away from Nico's. I watched in horror as she backed him up against the wall.

"_Il mio, il mio, _my _darling._" She purred, caressing his cheek. I watched in terror as Nico began to breathe heavily. "I cannot _wait_ to taste your flesh."

And with that she transformed.

**REMEMBER: If you are, or if you know a good beta, tell me in a review or PM!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hi everyone, quick post, huh? This is the climax chapter which explains why I posted so fast. I still need beta suggestions so please help if you can. Thanks! R&R please and my British friend will clog dance for you (her idea, I'd rather not witness that).**

_**Nico's POV**_

**The End**

I figured out what was going to happen a second before it happened.

"_Well Poseidon is as clueless as a bunch of rocks." _She had said.

"_Your girlfriend seems to have figured it out."_

"_I'm just __**hungry**__." _

It was now that I understood the double meaning.

"Nico!" Laina screeched. She pushed Kelli away from me, ignoring the fact that the teeth of the demon were growing into fangs and her eyes were becoming black holes.

"It's alright." I said softly, pulling our swords from our pack. "We should have her finished in time to get Poseidon before he leaves." I tried to sound calm, as if this were just another dumb demon to get in our way, but I wasn't doing too well. My voice quivered and shook as I watched Kelli pull herself up from the ground, her skin already a pale yellow color. I handed Laina her sword and we held them out at the ready.

"I have waited a long time for this amount of power." Kelli stated, licking her fangs in a hysterical manner.

Laina growled like an angry bear. "You're not getting any of it. In fact, I intend to retrieve any bit of my power that you have already taken."

I admired her strength. "I agree." I said strongly. "If you don't intend on being swept back down to Tartarus, I suggest you leave." I glared at her with all my might but she just laughed.

"Nico, darling, I thought you would've realized by now." She sat down on a table and crossed her legs as if this were just some casual chat. "Because of what Laina did to help your _mom_, I cannot be sent back into Tartarus."

I looked over at Laina whose face looked just as confused as mine. "What is she saying?" She whispered.

"What I'm saying," began Kelli her voice lowered down to a creepy whisper, "Is that you can't kill me, Nico Di Angelo." She looked my direction but seemed to be staring behind me rather than at me. "For I, Kelli the Empousae, am the first demon to ever succeed in becoming an immortal." She looked over at Laina her eyes glowing a repulsive red. "Thanks to you, my dear, I am now one of the gods."

And with that, she struck.

I heard the whoosh of her hand before I could recognize what it was. A gargled yell echoed back and fourth, cased inside the brick walls. The next thing I knew, Laina was on the ground, and Kelli was milliseconds away from tackling her. I got to my senses and bashed Kelli hard with my sword. She yelped as the blade broke through her grisly skin. Sure enough, it was oozing golden blood.

"You cannot defeat me." She snarled, pulling a knife out of a shaft hanging from her belt. My stomach plunged as she aimed it at us. The top edge glinted in the faint light and I embraced myself for the feeling of gruesome pain as she flung it at my head. To my surprise, no such feeling came, for the knife went over our heads and implanted itself pointedly in the electricity box. Kelli smiled as the lights went out and the people outside went quiet. We caught our breath. A woman's voice made a few announcements over the loudspeaker, breaking the shocked silence.

"We are very sorry for any inconveniences," she voiced boredly, "But we are going to have to ask you to exit the rink in an orderly fashion. Due to electrical purposes the rink will be closed for the rest of the day while we try to figure out what is wrong." There were more announcements but I wasn't paying them much attention.

"Now we have nobody to witness your death." Kelli murmured, talking more to herself than to us. I was about to yell something at the monster, probably not something pleasant, when Laina did the last thing I expected her to do. She looked into Kelli's eyes, her own glum and hopeless. She gave the demon a yielding nod, and set her sword on the ground, a familiar emotion on her face.

With a start I recognized it as the one she had adopted when she was going to kill herself.

"Laina?" I squeaked.

"Shh, Nico. I know what I must do." She stared at Kelli, her face as impassive as the Mona Lisa.

Kelli's lips began to form a smile as a look of recognition passed over her face. "Yes you do, my dear. You do."

I stared at Laina in extreme shock as she walked calmly over to the electrical box. She pulled the sharp knife out if the metal, not even jumping when it sparked. The tip of the blade, although a little worn now, still gleamed. She walked over until she was only a few feet away from me.

"I've know what I have to do for a day now." She explained, her eyes solemn but otherwise unreadable. "That prophecy line tells it all."

I opened my mouth to speak but the words stuck in my throat like glue. My mind refused to process what was going on.

"I can't postpone it anymore, Nico. It was bound to happen eventually."

My head spun and my vision blurred. This was really happening. I was losing yet another person close to me.

"I have to do it." She whispered.

"Yes she does." said Kelli.

"I have no choice." At this, tears finally began to spring from her eyes.

I swallowed the glue in my throat. "You can't. I won't allow you. I stopped you before, I can stop you now. I'm not letting you."

She shook her head. "This doesn't concern you anymore. This is my problem and I'm taking care of it."

"Right now." Kelli urged.

"Right now." Laina agreed. She dropped the knife on the ground and ran over to wrap her arms around my neck. "I can't let Kelli have my power." she whispered in my ear. "I have to kill myself. Once I'm gone the gods will fight. Your job is to convince them of what really happened. Convince them that losing me again was the work of the fates." She rested her hand on my cheek. "Convince them of the truth." I closed my eyes as she leaned in to kiss me but I never felt her lips.

"No time for that." Kelli barked, pulling Laina away by her hair. "Someone could barge in at any second." She picked up the knife from the ground and thrust it into Laina's hands. "Hurry now. You need to get this over with."

Laina held the knife out at arms distance. My heart was thundering in my chest and I felt the need to vomit. _It has to be a dream._ I told myself. _This can't be happening_.

But it was.

Laina was taking awhile and Kelli began to get impatient. "Hurry up you useless girl. I don't have time for this."

Laina looked at me and I saw her eyes were full of reluctance.

_Why?_ I wondered. _She's the one who finds it necessary to do this. _But then I realized exactly why Laina was being hesitant.

She knew that she had to do it, that wasn't a question. For there was no other choice. But because of that night in my cabin, she understood that it would be more pain than she could handle. We both knew that she wouldn't be able to cut off more than her pinky finger before she got queasy and fainted. Laina didn't have the power anymore to chop herself in pieces. She wouldn't be able to finish the process and Kelli would still have her power.

She held the blade over her heart and I understood almost immediately.

Laina was not going to cut her body parts into pieces.

I was.

I nodded to prove my understanding and she gave a sad smile before doing something with her hands that I could see behind her back. She brought her hands back around to the front and mouthed three words that made my heart skip a beat and tears spill over the lids of my eyes.

_I love you._

And with that she drove the shiny blade through her godly skin, directly into her beating heart.

"No!" I yelled as soon as I saw it jab through. Her golden blood was streaming out of her chest and onto the tiled floor. She lay on the ground her eyes shut (thank the gods), her fingers still closed tightly around the handle of the blade. "No, please no!' I begged. "I didn't mean it. I won't kill you. I won't!" But then I saw her hand. It was bleeding for some reason and I wondered why. But then I remembered that she had been doing something behind her back while I was figuring out what she had been trying to tell me. I held her hand up to the light and I realized with a wimper that written across the top were the words, '_You Have To.'_

I tried to argue with her words but I knew that there was nothing else that I could do. I held her bleeding hand against my face, ignoring the fact that I now had ichor on my cheek, and looked away as I pulled the knife out of her heart. My stomach churned and I looked around blindly for a place to vomit.

"What are you doing?" asked a voice from behind me. I swallowed to keep my stomach down and then turned to look at Kelli.

"I'm doing what Laina couldn't do." I told her quietly. Now that I knew I had to kill Laina, I didn't care that the Empousae was an enemy.

"Now, why on earth would you kill her?" Kelli exclaimed. "That's just atrocious."

I blinked a few times in confusion. I thought that this was what Kelli wanted. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Now that Laina's gone the gods will fight and you will be able to take control of the entire world, right?"

Kelli snorted. "What, are you kidding me?" She shook her head as if I were the dumbest thing in the world. Yeah, I could do that, but I won't have any of the added power that I got from Laina. A hellhound would have the same chances of taking over the world, as me."

I held my knife up as my jaw dropped and my eyes widened. "Are you saying that Laina just shoved a knife through her heart for _nothing_?" My adrenaline was pumping and I felt my eyes tingle from anger.

"No, no, no, you have it all wrong." Kelli explained, rolling her eyes and laughing. "You thought this whole time I was – no." She laughed some more and put her face inches away from mine. I felt her icy breaths against my face.

"My intention was never to cause a war of the gods." She whispered. "My intention was to get Laina out of the way. Make her hopeless. So hopeless that she couldn't think of any other thing to do other then kill herself. It's very juvenile, actually. Once Laina had no hope I was going to bite her." She gave me a smile. "I'm sure that Chiron taught you that Empousi cannot turn others into Empousi unless their victim is hopeless." She tore her gaze away from me and looked over at Laina who was still bleeding copiously on the floor. "By shoving that blade through her heart Laina did not take any power away from me. All she did was give me even more power to feast upon." She pushed me away and I stumbled a few feet before crashing into the wall, my head hurting something fierce. I tried to jump up quickly but my head was spinning and I couldn't tell where I was going. Kelli was already kneeling down to bite Laina's neck when I regained control over myself again. I watched in horror as she brought her fangs closer and closer to my best friend's neck. Yes, it was true that she would be as lively as she was before, but she would be a demon, a monster, and most definitely, not my best friend.

A thought worked its way into my head and I had yelled, "Stop!" before I could think it out properly.

"Yes?" Kelli asked, looking up from what she was doing. "Want to plead for her mercy, eh? Well sorry, but I'm not listening to any of that crap." She turned back around and resumed.

"I was going to suggest a deal." I blurted.

At this Kelli froze and looked up at me curiously. "A deal, you say?"

I nodded, trying to look reassuring. "Yes, a deal."

She got up from the ground and tried to wipe Laina's golden blood of her knee. "What is this _deal_?"

I took a deep breath before stating my proposal. "The only problem with being an Empousi is worrying about being struck with a sword or some other weapon and having to wait in Tartarus for a few years, correct?"

Kelli thought for a second. "Yes, I suppose so. We are fierce enough to fight off females and gorgeous enough to fight off males." She smiled but it didn't have quite the right effect considering she was still in her vampire form.

"But what if you didn't even have to fight to get rid of your females. What if you didn't have to worry about death getting in the way of your plots."

Kelli looked at me, and I could see her mind beginning to wrap itself around my suggestion. "Are you suggesting-?"

"Yes I am."

She smiled at me. "And you already have no hope because otherwise you wouldn't be suggesting this."

"Correct."

"And your only guideline?"

I looked over at Laina's frail body that was still on the ground oozing blood. Don't touch the girl."

Kelli looked from Laina to me. "You are a brave soul, Nico Di Angelo." She walked closer until I could see the white textures in her fangs. "I like that."

And with that final comment, she bit.

**Yayy! Climax chapter is over! I'm thinking of changing my rating to teen but I'm not sure. It's not **_**that **_**gross, right? Only a few chapters left, and I still need beta ideas. Help if you can!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Alright, here's the next chapter. I'm on winter break so I'm really hoping to make some progress with this thing. I still need beta suggestions, I haven't gotten any. Oh, and yeah, I make a few Twilight references. I'll try not to give anything away but it's kinda – erm – important.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, nor Twilight, nor a giant chinchilla… yet.**

_**Laina's POV**_

**Excessive Feelings of Hatred… And Sadness**

When I awoke I had the weirdest feeling of déjà vu. My body ached and I felt gross. I could hear whispers coming from people around me, but I didn't have enough strength to open my eyes yet.

"I think she's waking up." Somebody whispered.

The room went silent almost instantly. I forced my eyelids to open and the light that they let in nearly blinded me. I blinked a couple of times while my eyes got used to the brightness.

"Laina?" asked a voice.

I opened my mouth to say something but before I could get out a squeak I yawned so big I felt like a lion. A person or two giggled. I rubbed my eyes with my hands and soon I could actually see. I was in a bed in the infirmary surrounded by my friends from camp.

"Are you feeling alright? Do you need any pain medication?" asked Chiron. I shook my head, still puzzled.

"Hold on, I don't understand-" I stuttered. And then I remembered.

"That _idiot_!" I yelled. Everybody who was gathered around my bed jumped. I tried to get up, but, before I could get even a centimeter above the mattress, I felt a searing pain in my heart.

"Ow!" I yelled, falling back against the bed.

"You need to stay." Chiron ordered, laying a hand on my shoulder to keep me down.

As if I was going to try _that _again.

"I can't believe he didn't do it!" I exclaimed, ignoring the throbbing from my chest.

"It isn't what you think it is." Chiron insisted. "Calm down. I will explain."

I tried to say something else but he shot me a look before I could get anything out. With slight resentment I followed his orders, and soon he had begun his explaining.

"Laina, Kelli's plan was not to kill you." He began, his hand still partially holding me down.

I snorted. "Of course it was, she told us herself."

"Well yes," he said, "but actually-"

"Chiron, I could tell." I insisted. "She was all on board with the whole 'killing myself' thing."

"Yes, she may have acted-"

"It was her plan, I'm sure-"

"She was trying to trick you!" Chiron yelled exasperately.

Everyone went quiet.

I stuttered to find the right words. "She… She was?"

He nodded his head, raising his eyebrows convincingly. "Her real plan was to make you hopeless. Once you were hopeless she was going to turn you into one of her kind."

I was silent for a moment. "An Empousa?" I asked quietly.

"Correct. Once you were bitten you were going to join her group and hunt along with her warriors." He explained. "With your powers she could eventually take over the world."

I shook my head. Something still didn't make sense. "No. Even if I was turned into an Empousa, we wouldn't be able to take over the world. I may be powerful but the gods have much more power than the Empousi and I would have combined."

Chiron nodded. "But think. You are the last Laina that could ever be made. Even if you had terrible intentions, do you think the gods would want to kill you?"

Even though what he said made sense, I didn't think the gods would allow someone to take over Olympus, even if that someone was their daughter. "Well actually-" I started

"No," said a familiar voice. "They wouldn't."

I looked over and saw Annabeth sitting in one of the chairs.

My eyes tightened. "And how would you know that?" I crossed my arms over my, still throbbing, chest.

She looked up into my eyes and I was surprised to see that they looked sad and dead. "Because I know exactly how it feels to lose someone you love to evil." A tear rolled down her cheek and I felt a sudden pang of guilt.

Annabeth had lost so many people close to her. Luke was only one of them. To try to get her to risk Percy too had been a dumb move by me. I realized that now as I saw him go over to try to comfort her.

I tried to figure out the right words to say but I could only come up with, "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It's… It's fine. I just think that Chiron is right. Your parents wouldn't attack you no matter what your intentions were."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I see what you're saying. But I still don't understand. If Nico really didn't cut me up and I'm sitting her alive as can be, then where is he?"

The silence that followed was so long and dreadful that for a moment I suspected that time had paused. Suddenly I felt dizzy and it wasn't just because of all of the blood I had lost.

"No." I said firmly, staring at Chiron with a look of anger. "He's not dead, he _can't _be dead." I looked around at all of the solemn faces. Chiron tried to say something but I cut him off. "Nico's a strong boy." I said adamantly. "He can fight off a stupid Empousa." Tears began to stream down my face and my words slurred. "He's not dead!" I shouted.

Chiron took a deep breath. "He's not dead, Laina. But for the situation he's in, he'd probably rather be."

A breath caught in my throat and I felt my cheeks sting as more tears left their salty tracks down my face. "Where is he?" I demanded. "What did that beast do to him?"

Chiron put his hand on my shoulder again, trying to keep me from sitting up. "He sacrificed himself for you." He whispered quietly, trying to comfort me but just making me more anxious.

"He gave up his normal demigod life for you and became the first male Empousa."

I couldn't process this. It was all too much. Yeah, I was alive, and yeah, so was Nico, but he was an _Empousa_. A _Demon _sent out to kill as many demigods as it could. My best friend in the entire world was a _Monster_.

At this, I really started crying.

Like, flat out bawling. Screaming so bad that if it were ever played back to me on the T.V. I would grab my suitcase and leave. But I wouldn't have Nico with me. No, because the moron had to sacrifice his real life and go join some evil club.

I covered my eyes with my hands and just willed heart to die. To rid myself of this mess. To never have to worry about Empousi or demigods ever again. But I knew that that would never work. I would sit down in the fields of Asphodel and just mourn over my stupidity. Bury my senses under the ground and never really live, ever again. I tried to calm myself down but it didn't work. All I ended up doing was losing even more air and gasping even harder. I lost track of how long I had been crying and the world seemed to slip away. I wasn't dead, I knew that for a fact. My heart was aching and I wondered idly how long it was going to be before it was able to use the god blood in me to heal itself.

"You're going to pop a lung." said a voice, after a while of my tantrum.

I came speeding back down to earth.

"I don't care." I wheezed as soon as I had my voice. I opened my eyes to see that everyone had left. "What happened?"

Jack sighed. "You fell asleep crying and people had other things to do so they left. I, on the other hand, am off duty today so I decided to be a kind soul and stay with you for a little while." He put his arms back behind his head and relaxed on the infirmary chair. He went quiet for a minute or two.

"Is it really true then?" I asked quietly, breaking the short silence. "Nico's gone?"

Jack gave a deep breath through his nose. "Well, I wouldn't say gone, exactly. He's still alive. Maybe if he has a change of heart and decides to come back to camp, we can get the venom out of him somehow. He seems to love you enough." His words faded away and soon his eyes were closed and he seemed lost in his own world.

"Do you really think that could happen?" I asked my heart lightening a little at the thought of it.

His eyes popped open with a start. "What? Huh? Oh, right. Well, no. It's possible but not likely."

My heart sank again.

"It would take something pretty huge to get him to want to come back." He explained, trying to make me feel a little better but failing. I mean, it'd be just as hard as trying to convince you to become an Empousa. Harder, actually." He added after seeing my thoughtful expression. "Because Empousi don't really believe in love. Mostly food. If you ever tried to talk to him then he would likely brush you off as if you were nothing. And the other Empousi would eat you for sure."

I let out another whimper and Jack went quiet for a moment.

"You really loved that guy, didn't you?" he muttered. It sounded rhetorical but I answered anyway.

"Yes, but I didn't realize it until it was too late." I took a deep breath. We were quiet again.

"How did you and Chiron know about all of this?" I asked. "Nico and I were the only ones in that room."

Jack opened an eye. "Actually you weren't. Apparently that British or Australian boy – whatever he is – was hiding where you couldn't see him, under an invisibility cap or something."

I made an 'ugh' noise. "You mean Russel? Well, why didn't he help?"

"Dunno." answered Jack. "I'm guessing that he was worried that Empousa would eat him too, but decided to watch in case you had any bad injuries by the end. And as it turns out, you did."

I clenched my jaw to keep from cursing. "Well, it would've been nice if he had _helped _us so that we wouldn't be in this little predicament right now. Is he still here? There are a few things I'd like to say to him."

Jack shook his head. "Naw. He left as soon as he was sure that you were in good care." He yawned. "He seems to like you a lot. I mean, he carried you gross and bloody all the way back to camp. If you can't have Nico back, I'd suggest taking him."

"If he doesn't keep ditching me whenever I need to talk to him, and not helping when I'm nearly dead." I mumbled to myself. "Hey, I faintly remember Nico saying something about how Empousa are like Vampires. Is that true?"

Jack nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, it's really cool. They're not quite as powerful as vampires and they have a lot more guidelines to follow when it comes to eating and biting, but other than a few differences they're nearly the same."

I was about to ask another question that had just appeared in my head, when suddenly there was a loud _boom_ and the infirmary shook threateningly. I could've sworn I heard an outraged yell as the shaking died away.

"What was that?" I asked Jack, all thoughts of my other question completely gone.

"I have no idea." he said. "But usually, in the Greek mythology world, when the ground shakes and there is a random yell coming from somewhere, something bad has just happened." He grabbed Chiron's magical wheelchair from where it was propped up against a wall. "Here, let me put you in this. We can go look around." He picked me up off the bed and I tried not to yelp in pain as my heart seemed to tear and tear again. I was placed in the wheelchair and I took deep breaths in and out as I tried to get myself together.

"Sorry." Jack mumbled, not sounding very sorry. He grabbed the handles of my wheelchair and wheeled me out the door. As soon as we were outside and on gravel, he took off in a jog.

I had no idea what time it was but judging by the low sun and the hunger that was eating out my stomach, it was around dinnertime. Sure enough, when we arrived at the dining pavilion, all of the campers were eating hamburgers and fries. Chiron was sitting back down at his table as if he had just finished giving an announcement.

"What was that?" asked Jack, as soon as we got to him.

Chiron took one look at me in the wheelchair and gave Jack a glare. "You know that she is supposed to stay in her _bed_, correct?"

Jack just shrugged. "You know that she would never let me just leave her in there, correct."

Chiron just sighed and shot more disapproving looks at the swording instructor.

"Well what was it?" I asked, ignoring the ache in my heart.

"That was Hades." Chiron answered, finally turning from Jack to look at me. "My guess is that he has just learned the fate of his son." He stared off into space blankly, his deep brown eyes looking sorrowful.

Suddenly a thought struck me with such force that I nearly fell out of Chiron's wheelchair. I yelped once again as my heart ripped. Both Jack and Chiron reached to help steady me, but I brushed their hands away.

"It's the prophecy line." I said, as soon as I had regained my composure. "_The trusted one, evil in the end, will bring a terrible fate to a, once called, friend_."

"Kelli." said Chiron nodding, his eyes wide. "Good work Laina." he pulled a notepad out of his pocket and crossed off the prophecy line. "Mrs. Di Angelo, who was trusted, was actually Kelli, who bit Nico." he nodded a few more times, scribbling in his notebook.

"What lines do we have left?" asked Jack, peering over Chiron's shoulder.

Chiron ran his finger along the prophecy. "_'The old acquaintance will admit his wrong.'_ Is one of the lines, and the last two being, _'The daughter will do what's been done before, to postpone, not end, a terrible war.'_"

We were all quiet for a moment, each of us lost in deep thought.

"We have to get him back." I said quietly after a minute or two of stillness. "No stupid vampire can control who he's loyal to."

Jack groaned. "Can you _please _call her an Empousa? I knew a vampire once and she was actually very nice. Empousi are ruthless. There are differences, you know."

Suddenly Chiron gasped.

"There are also similarities." he exclaimed.

Jack and I looked at each other confusedly while the centaur rummaged around in his satchel. "Got it!" he exclaimed, his eyes shining. He pulled out a book that I had seen many times before.

"What's Twilight got to do with anything?" I asked while scrunching up my nose. Chiron flipped through the pages until he reached the one he wanted.

"Listen to this:" he said excitedly. "'_See if you can suck the venom back out. The wound is fairly clean._'" Chiron skimmed the page a little more. "_Slowly my writhing calmed as my hand grew more and more numb_." he read.

It didn't make much sense to me, but Jack's grim expression was slowly turning into a smile. "Oh, _that _similarity." he chuckled. "Do you think it will work?"

Chiron shrugged. "It's really our only option, if Laina wants Nico back."

"Huh?" I asked. My heart began to pound. It hurt really badly but I didn't care. "What's this about Nico?"

"I'll explain." said Jack. He pulled my wheelchair over to an empty dining table and sat down on one of the benches. "Have you read Twilight, Laina?" he asked once we were settled.

I nodded. It was awhile ago but I had.

"Then you remember how one of the vampires was able to suck the venom out of the mortal. How, even after the venom had begun to do its job, the victim was saved correct?"

"Yeah," I said. "I faintly remember that."

Jack took the book out of Chiron's hands and showed me the page. "_'See if you can suck the venom back out. The wound is fairly clean_._'_ That's the sentence just before the venom was sucked out. Don't you see it? If vampires can suck out the venom, then who's to say that Empousi don't have the same ability?" His face was shining and Chiron's was too.

"I've taught this in one of my lessons." the centaur said. "The only difference is that with Empousi, anyone extraordinarily powerful can suck out the venom. It doesn't have to be another Empousi." His tail swished with excitement. "We think that maybe we can reenact what the vampires did in Twilight."

Jack leaned forward in his chair so that he was looking right into my eyes. "We think that maybe, just maybe, you could suck the blood out of Nico and turn him back into a regular demigod."

They stared at me, waiting for my verdict.

I thought about it. "It has to be me, though, right?" I asked.

Chiron shook his head. "No, anyone powerful enough to not be taken over by the venom will do, we just think that Nico will be more willing to listen to you."

I thought for a few more minutes. If I could convince Nico to let me drink the venom out of his system then yes, I'd have a small part of Empousi in me and that could get annoying, but I'd also have Nico back. It would be sacrificing a lot for him, but after all that he'd sacrificed for me, it seemed like nothing. I took a deep breath before verbalizing my final thought.

"Let's do it." I breathed at last.

**Ah, see now do you remember that conversation between Laina and Nico in the motel room when he was reading Twilight? If not, it's in chapter 19. When I re-edit my story I'll put the actual names in the chapter titles, so that should help.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Alright, as sure as I am that you do **_**not **_**want to hear my excuses, I'm going to give them to you anyway. The reason that I have not posted in ages, is because I was actually somewhat confused about the ending of my story. I wanted to finish, or get close to finishing, the first draft of the last chapters before actually posting them so that I could change things and then go back to them. This means that now the chapters should be coming faster than before. But once again, sorry for the wait. Here's chapter something or other.**

_**Laina's POV**_

**This, my Friends, is the Beginning of the End**

It didn't take us long to figure out where the Empousi were camped. We heard on the Apollo kids' radio that the community center where we went to find Apollo and Hermes had become, _'cursed'_ and anyone who stepped inside would mysteriously, _'disappear.'_ Apparently a group of policemen were planning on barging in there tomorrow morning to try to figure out what was going on. This meant that we only had a few hours to try to retrieve Nico before the Empousi moved elsewhere. We got dinner as quickly as humanly possible and soon I was the last one sitting at the tables. I had just wiped my mouth for the final time when someone cleared there throat behind me. With only slight pain, I turned around to see who it was.

"Annabeth?" I asked in amazement.

Sure enough, the blonde daughter of Athena was standing directly behind me, avoiding my eyes. She cleared her throat. "Laina, um, hi." Her face was red, realizing how awkward this conversation was.

"Hi." I said back, unsure of how else to respond. She took a deep breath.

"I, uh, wanted to apologize for my… irrational behavior earlier this week." She pushed a lock of her hair behind her ears. "I was really mean when I told you not to bring Percy and I realized that when I heard about how Russel abandoned you."

"It's no big deal," I assured her, "I was just as bad, and you didn't know that Russel would leave us."

She nodded. "Yeah, I guess, but I also wanted to give you this." She pulled her hand out from behind her back and I was astonished to see her infamous blue Yankees cap.

"You're giving me your invisibility cap?" I exclaimed, staring at her in awe.

"A loan actually." She cleared her throat. "I think it might come in handy when you're trying to get passed the other Empousi… I overheard your conversation with Chiron." she added after seeing my confused expression. I didn't say anything, but I had a feeling it was more _eavesdropping_ then _overhearing_.

"Thanks." I said gratefully, examining the cap in my hands. "It really means a lot. And, I know I said this earlier, but I'm really sorry about the whole Percy thing. I was just scared and I didn't want to have to worry about fighting. You had no idea that Russel would pull a stunt like this." My voice cracked as I said his name. Despite the things he had done to me, I missed him almost as much as I missed Nico.

She nodded in agreement. "Yeah, there was always something weird about that guy."

We stared off into space for a moment or two before I shook out of my daze. "I should be heading out."

She jumped.

"Oh yeah, sorry. She turned to go but stopped suddenly and turned back around. "Umm, Laina," she began.

I turned around as well. "Yeah?"

She looked me right in the eyes. "Good luck on your quest. I really hope you get Nico back."

"Thanks." I said with a small smile.

She held out a hand. "Friends?"

My smile grew as I held my hand out as well. "Friends."

I shook her hand, then gave her a parting nod before shoving her baseball cap into my, already full, backpack, and wheeling myself painfully up to the top of Half-Blood Hill.

With a few gasps to catch my breath, I pushed the wheels up the last foot to get to the top of the hill.

I wasn't surprised to see the group of adults that were going to help me, in a clump, discussing something. I was able to recognize Chiron, Jack, Argus, and Aphrodite. Two other campers were also with them and it took me a moment to determine who they were.

"Conner? Lily?" I asked.

Conner looked at me and smiled. "It's Travis. You're close."

"And it's _Lillian_." said the Aphrodite girl, not even looking up from her nails. "And I didn't ask to be here."

Travis chuckled and leaned back against a tree. Lillian smirked as a Nymph whacked him upside the head with a branch.

"Campers." Jack said, motioning to us. We jogged over.

"Alright," began Chiron turning around to face us. I was surprised that he was in his centaur form. I had assumed that he would be in his wheelchair, ready to accompany us. "Now that we're all here, I am going to clarify. As I have already explained, Nico has been abducted by the Empousi and is with them in Virginia at this very moment. We believe that we can bring him back to his senses if Laina sucks the venom out of him."

Jack continued for him. "Our plan is to have Lillian, Trevor, and Argus stationed outside of the community center with swords in case something is to go wrong and we need backup." He looked each of them in the eyes and they nodded.

"Got it." said Travis.

"I," continued Jack, "am going to hide inside for even more security, along with Aphrodite who is going to work her magic on Nico to try to help Laina out." He moved his eyes to where I stood. "Laina, you are somehow going to sneak inside, get past all of the other Empousi, find Nico, and then either try to convince him to come with you somewhere else, or suck the venom out of him right then and there."

I nodded in understanding. My part was the most important part of the plan.

So naturally, it was the most dangerous.

"My assumption," he said raising his eyebrows, "is that as soon as the Empousi catch sight of you, and realize what you are doing, they are going to try to eat you," He gave a smile and I gulped. "So you are going to have to be quick. If worse comes to worse then signal for us to come help."

"What's the signal?" I asked.

"Uhh." He thought for a moment. "The signal is to bawk like a chicken."

I squinted at him. "And why, may I ask, is it that?"

He shrugged and smiled happily. "No reason, I just want to see you make a fool of yourself." He patted me on the back and then turned to give Aphrodite instructions on how to get us there.

"Stupid karma." I muttered, remembering what I did at the ice rink.

Chiron bid us good luck before trotting back down the hill to help Mr. D out in controlling some fight everyone was watching.

Soon Aphrodite was ready and we all joined hands. Lillian gave a little squeal as the air around us turned misty and orange. I closed my eyes as we were engulfed in the haze. When I opened them again we had landed gracefully, (well, all except Travis who fell on top of Lillian on purpose) and were adjusting to the different scene.

"Get off me Numbskull." Lillian groaned pushing Travis into a tree branch.

"Sorry," he said smiling. "But just so you know, I won't need Morpheus to dream about you tonight."

"Ugh!" said Lillian walking away from him, her face looking totally disgusted.

"Wait!" called Travis desperately. "Are you a child of Aeolus? 'Cause you blew me away!"

"Everyone gather round." said Jack motioning to us all. We walked, (in my case wheeled) over to where Jack was standing under a large tree examining his blade in the sunlight. "We need to begin our POA." he said after sticking his sword back in his belt loop.

We all blinked.

"_Plan of action_."

"Oh." we chorused.

"We'll start by getting into position…" He retold the instructions that he had given back at camp. I probably should have been listening to what he was saying but it was much more entertaining to listen to Travis's failing attempts at flirting with Lillian.

"You know," he whispered to her, just loud enough for me to hear, "you could pass as another kid of Hermes, 'cause you just stole my heart."

"Shut up Travis."

"Are you sure you're not Poseidon's daughter? 'Cause I'm drowning in your beauty!"

"Shut _up_ Travis."

"Or maybe a child of Hades, 'cause girl, you're drop dead gorgeous!"

"_Shut_ _up_ _Travis_."

"Might even be Kronos, 'cause time doesn't seem to exist when I'm with you."

"Shut. Up. Before. I. Kill. You. Travis."

"I'm even gonna guess Typhon, 'cause you blew me away with your smile."

"My gods, Travis, if you don't close your trap I will shove my foot up your-"

"Is there a problem?" Jack interrupted irritably, his eyes flaring dangerously. They both stopped.

"Lillian?" he asked again, crossing his arms.

"Sorry Jack" she mumbled.

Aphrodite and I were giggling like mad but Jack was oblivious.

"It's not funny, mom!" Lillian stomped her foot angrily and glared at Aphrodite.

"If it makes you feel any better," Travis whispered, "If I could have one gift from the gods it would be you."

"Argh!" she yelled, causing the daydreaming Argus to jump. "Let's just get this _**(these parentheses have been placed for your convenience)**_ thing over with!" She stomped off to the front of the building.

After a moment or two of just standing there Jack sighed. "Travis, there's not much I can say to a guy like you."

Argus shook his head and made a disapproving noise behind him

"Let's get a move on." said Aphrodite seriously, though a small smile was still playing at the corners of her lips.

We followed her up to the front of the building where Lillian was already waiting in position holding her sword behind her back, her expression a mad scowl. Argus and Travis joined her while Aphrodite, Jack, and I walked up to the front entrance.

"Here we go." said Jack quietly. We all took a deep breath. "Remember to listen for chicken noises." He reminded the others."

"Gotcha." Travis said with a thumbs up, gladly demonstrating the noise everyone should listen for, with an added demonstration.

With one last look at the outside, we held our swords bravely in the air and opened the front door.

When we stepped inside the building I expected to immediately be bombarded by hungry demons. But to my surprise, it was eerily empty. Jack beckoned for us to follow him.

"We're going to hide over here." he whispered, motioning for Aphrodite to come as he climbed behind the couch. She crinkled her nose at the dirty floor but reluctantly crouched next to him. Jack was about to continue but voices down the hall stopped him short. He and Aphrodite ducked down as low as they could and I tore open my backpack to pull out the invisibility cap.

"I thought I heard a noise coming from in here." said a woman's voice. I thrust the invisibility cap on my head, mere seconds before the Empousi arrived.

"Well I don't see anyone." said a teenager.

They walked together around the corner and I held my breath as I stood there, feeling as vulnerable as ever, not even checking to see if the invisibility cap had worked.

The woman sniffed the air. "I can smell them." she said. She sniffed once more to be sure. "They're here."

The teenager turned around and I nearly gasped out loud when I saw her face. I recognized her from somewhere else. I didn't remember where I had seen her before, and unfortunately I didn't have much time to think about it. They were approaching the couch, their noses in the air. It wouldn't be long before they found Jack and Aphrodite.

I was about to go stab them with my sword or something, but before I could do anything, the blonde woman stopped dead.

"Do you smell that?" she asked the other one, her eyes wide.

The teenaged Empousa raised her eyebrow. "No. What do you smell?"

The woman sniffed again. "Peppermint. There's peppermint around here somewhere."

The teen scratched her chin. "And this is important, how?"

The woman ran over to the front desk and opened drawers rapidly, throwing papers in the air like they were piles of money. "I _love_ peppermint!"

The teen was about halfway into making another weird face, when suddenly she paused. "Peppermint?" She turned completely around. "I LOVE peppermint!" and ran over to help the woman search, drooling hungrily.

"_Págo__̱__ma_!" Aphrodite yelled, standing up. Both of the women stopped their rummaging.

"Get down!" I mumbled, "They're still here."

Aphrodite snorted, brushing the backs of her pants off with her hands. "I just stunned them, Laina, they aren't moving anywhere, anytime soon."

I pulled off Annabeth's cap and stared at Aphrodite. "I'm sorry, you _what?_"

"I _froze _them." she said irritably. "Now, _you _need to get going." She stepped over the top of the couch, groaning when her high heels made it difficult. "They will only stay frozen for twenty minutes," she continued, "and the obsession with peppermint will only last until they find the minty candies in the bottom drawer."

I looked back at the Empousi, half expecting them to be gone. They were still frozen but had moved their eyes around and were looking at us.

"We can't kill them." said Jack, practically reading my mind. "When one Empousi dies, it triggers something in all of the others. They will know immediately that we are here and will come for battle." he sighed. "We don't know how many of them there are."

I held my head in my hands, already feeling the beginnings of a headache. "Anything _else _I should know before I leave?"

Jack looked at his feet. "Well, the fact that you only have until midnight to get the venom out before it sets into Nico's body and he is an Empousi forever."

I held in a whimper.

The quest now seemed hopeless.

"How do you know this?" I asked, hoping desperately that he was going to say something like, 'I don't. I'm just saying it to get you nervous.' But unfortunately he didn't.

"I knew a Vampire," he grumbled, "She studied Empousi for a living. Now get going!" he walked back through the doors without so much as a wave goodbye.

"What's up with him?" I asked Aphrodite once the door clicked shut.

She shrugged. "I don't know, hon." She gave me a quick hug goodbye before bidding me good luck and slipping along after Jack.

I took a deep breath. From now on, I was alone.

I looked back at the two Empousi at the desk, realizing that there was one thing I needed to do before setting off to find Nico. I wheeled over to them cautiously.

"I recognize you now." I said to the teenager, approaching her with my sword. Her eyes looked full to the rim with fear but I didn't care. "You're that Empousi," I said, "the one that killed Starfly, and nearly killed me, earlier this summer."

She shook in her shoes but she couldn't move. I knew I was right.

"And I absolutely hate you for that." I snarled jolting the chair towards her.

Her eyes got wider and I could tell all she wanted was to unfreeze.

"I can't kill you." I whispered, staring into that mean face. It was so breathtakingly beautiful, but so heart wrenchingly ugly at the same time.

"But when I get Nico back," I told her, "I will find you along with the other monster that shot me in the neck, and you can be _sure _I won't spare you." I held my sword carefully at the tip and touched it to her arm, carving three words into her upper forearm. "_Don't forget_." I whispered as I sliced, staring into those guilty eyes with my own. "_Ever._"

It was then that I replaced the invisibility cap on my head, turned around, and wheeled away. In my distracted state, I wasn't even able to process the fact that my sword was dripping with the raw red blood of humans, not the rough grainy sand of the monsters.

And oh, what a big mistake that was.

I proceeded through the various hallways, checking each door for signs of life. I had set the alarm on my phone to vibrate (obviously not ring) when twenty minutes were up so that I knew when the Empousi would unfreeze. I looked around but for the most part, I saw nothing. It wasn't until I got near to where the auditorium was that I saw anything out of the ordinary. The wallpaper was ripped with claw marks, and there was a hole, the size of my hand, in the wall. When I peeped inside I saw a policeman's gun. I checked it quickly for ammo but it was as empty as the hall I was walking through.

I dragged myself down the hallway, trying to keep the wheels gentle and muffled but I could hear their squeaks echoing back in fourth. I felt like a bear with hunters only yards away with loaded guns. I kept looking around and had to constantly remind myself that I was invisible and my only problem would be the demons' keen sense of smell. I passed my first shattered window and through it I saw dark blue sky fading into a deep black far away. I gulped down my sense of dread that all killings in horror movies happen at night, and continued down the hallway approaching the auditorium.

I'll admit it, I nearly dropped unconscious right then and there when I saw the pile of bones leaned up against the wall. I saw something shiny on top of it and bent down to get a better look.

It was a policeman's badge.

I turned away breathing heavily before I could even fully understand what I was seeing, and focused on a poster that had fallen off the wall. It read: '_VCC's Talent Show will be hosted on July Fourth. Come to see Amazing acts of all Talents, or sign up with the Desk Clerk to Perform_.'

I forced a smile. If I made it back to camp with my head still attached then maybe I would think about it. I picked the poster up and used a stray nail to shove it in the wall.

I was wasting so much time. Procrastination would not help in a time like this. I took a deep breath before continuing my walk down the hall. I got to the entrance of the auditorium and peeped the door open a crack. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I caught sight of the hoards of demons inside.

And not just Empousi, either. There were all sorts of monsters gathered in their little clumps, gossiping like school children. There were so many that I couldn't even recognize. Although it was made up of mostly Empousi, I saw Telekhines, and Hellhounds, and even a few Dracenae who usually didn't get along well with Empousi.

I closed the door as fast as I could and looked around myself. My heart was thundering, and I felt dizzy. I wanted to leave so bad; to get out of this place and be safe back at camp. But I knew that I couldn't do that. It was childish. Something a mortal would do. _But I am a mortal_. I thought to myself. I spent twelve years as a mortal, just living on school and friends. Never had I assumed it would come down to something like this. It had never crossed my mind. I had been clueless.

But now, I thought to myself as I stared at that blank misleading door, now I had a _life _to save. And not just any life either. The life of my best friend. The guy who I spent virtually all of my best memories with. The guy who made every day funny and happy even though we almost always faced death, and stood by my side, even when leaving me would be much easier. The life of the guy who made _my _life worth living.

I had to save him, I had no choice. I wasn't going to let him live like this.

I held my hand out and grasped the doorknob, my hand numb. I turned it for the second time and peered in. This time, I was expecting it.

I saw all of the monsters in their huddles giggling and talking just as they were before. That in itself was enough to send shivers up my spine. But now that I actually tried observing, I saw things that I had missed before. There was a girl I recognized, glaring at a bunch of the monsters.

"Let me out of here!" she growled at them. "You can't keep me here like a prisoner, it's illegal!"

The Telekhines just barked happily as they taunted her. "And since when do we care about the law, you useless girl?" they asked howling in harmony.

She grumbled, "Filthy mutts. You should go to the kennel where you belong!"

The dogs just yipped happily as if she were some sort of play toy. She turned around to stalk off and I let out a quiet gasp as I recognized her.

"Addison," I whispered, "the girl in my old dance class."

I realized what must have happened. She probably came to the community center to practice, unaware of the monsters, and gotten trapped. It was a miracle that they hadn't eaten her yet, was all I could think of. I looked away from Addison and off towards the stage. I nearly choked on air when I saw two lone figures just through the crack of the curtains. I could tell they were both boys and that puzzled me. I thought Nico was the first male Empousi. I squinted to try to make out who the other guy was, but all I could see was their blonde hair. I took one last look at Nico before closing the door and pacing up and down the deserted hallway. There had to be some way to get backstage. I only had to worry about the monsters smelling me if I got too close. Once I got Nico on my side, I could convince him to get Addison and we could all leave together. It didn't sound too hard but it was easier said than done. I was just about to go back and ask for Jack's help when I caught sight of another door I hadn't noticed before. The sign next to it read '_Backstage.'_

I couldn't believe my luck! I reached for the doorknob but it was locked. I let out a huff of air. It had been a little over five minutes since I left the lobby which meant that I had about fifteen until the Empousi unfroze. I grabbed another nail off of the floor and began to pick at the lock. I let out a huge sigh of relief when I heard the satisfying 'click' which meant it was open. I opened the door and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw a Cyclopes standing there, bat in his hand, seconds from striking me. Without really thinking, I yelled the first word that came to my mind.

"Págo̱ma!"

The Cyclopes froze in mid-swing and its bat fell to the floor with a clang. He had to be ten feet tall and as muscled as ten Jacks, but the simple word stopped him right in his tracks. I wheeled past him carefully, ignoring the huge veiny eye that followed my every move. The room became dark and I could only hope that there weren't any other monsters hiding in the must. I maneuvered my way around various stage props, thankfully not knocking any over. Eventually, I saw a light up ahead and I creeped against the wall, trying to find Nico and the mysterious blonde boy. Suddenly I heard a voice from outside my little storage hallway that made my heart sink to my knees.

"Where's Kelli?" they asked.

I heard someone's footsteps stop as they halted, to answer him. "She went out to the lobby." said the other voice, also slightly familiar.

"The lobby?" repeated Nico.

"Yup," said the boy, "something about her daughter Debbie."

Nico snorted and I could practically see his eyebrow rise even though I wasn't close enough to catch a glimpse of him. "Shouldn't that sentence be, 'Something about _our _daughter Debbie'?"

I heard the blonde boy snarl. "Debbie's useless. I don't see why Kelli even keeps her, and I certainly will not refer to her as my daughter. She barely has any aggression, and she doesn't even seem to like meat. It's like she actually has _feelings_." he said the word with such distaste that I glared subconsciously.

Nico just laughed. "Don't you think those _feelings _come from you, Todd? You being the mortal parent and all."

My jaw dropped. No wonder the voice sounded familiar. It was Todd, the Apollo camper who had been missing from camp. He was Debbie's father? That was a weird thought. Empousi must have some weird fast growing thing because Debbie struck me as being much older than him. I thought about Todd's little brother Raymond who had been crying at the dining tables only a few days ago, and I felt my heart sink. Poor Raymond, I could only imagine what he would feel if he found out his brother was a traitor.

"Well anyway, Kelli's not here." said Todd angrily. "She thinks someone might've come into the community center. She's worried." he snorted. "I don't believe it though. None of your friends would care enough to come after you."

I half expected Nico to argue, or punch Todd, or tell him to shut up, but to my surprise, he didn't. "Yeah, I doubt they'd be that dumb. But you never know."

I stuck my invisible head around the corner and caught a glimpse of Todd raising an eyebrow.

"You don't _seriously _still care about them, do you?" he asked.

Nico sighed. "Well, I wouldn't eat them but it's not like I wouldn't stab them with a sword if they tried to take me back."

I gulped.

"'Atta boy." said Todd, patting Nico's shoulder. He walked past the curtain and I was left watching Nico standing there with a sad look on his face.

"I wasn't kidding you know." he said quietly.

My eyes widened but I didn't say anything. He couldn't be talking to me, I mean, I was invisible.

He turned around. "I know you're there Laina, and you're lucky Todd doesn't. God blood tastes better than human blood. It has a stronger scent." he continued practically to himself. "It's pure luck that he was too distracted to smell you."

I stared at his face. It was amazing how recognizable he was, but still so unfamiliar.

"I'm not going to kill you." he said finally, after I was silent for a few moments.

Suddenly I remembered why I was here. I shook out of my daze and pulled Annabeth's cap off.

"You need to come with me." I said as soon as I had removed it.

His eyes widened at my sudden appearance but he was otherwise silent. "We only have a few minutes until the Empousi unfreeze and the Cyclopes comes." I looked up at him. Before, he had only been a few inches taller than me. Now it seemed like he grew in size and muscle. He towered over me and he looked older somehow. Stronger. He didn't look healthy though. His eyes that were usually such a goofy grayish hazel were now black and lifeless. His skin had lost its color and he was very pale. He looked sick. Like any moment he would have a coughing fit. The only difference was that he also looked like he would be able to pound me into nothing if he had to. And to my dismay, he didn't seem as far away as I would've have liked, from doing so. We needed to get going before time ran out.

I grabbed for his hand but he jumped away and let out a low growl.

"Nico!' I gasped yanking my arm back, my heart pounding.

He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes. "I'm not the same Nico that I was last week, Laina." he said through his teeth. "I am a demon, not a person. If you approach me I will be forced to eat you, and I don't think your people would be happy about that." He opened his eyes and looked at me. I felt so disgusted, so wrong to be in this position. The love of my life threatening to eat me?

With a sigh he continued. "I can do so much as to retrieve Addison for you before you go." he said. "She was the only human in the building when the Empousi attacked, and they don't like the smell of her anyway. I can set her free. But other than that," he looked around himself to make sure that nobody else was coming. "There's nothing I can do to help you." He stared into my eyes but it felt wrong, like I was looking at my death token or something.

"It's taken every ounce of my strength not to eat you." he said quietly. For some reason, this didn't seem to surprise me as much as it should've.

"To be honest," he continued, "I'm not quite sure why I haven't. It's your fault I'm Empousi anyway. If you hadn't stabbed yourself then we could've fought Kelli together." he shook his head and looked away. "But now she's my master and you need to go before she comes back."

I didn't realize that there were tears on my cheeks until he held his nose and turned away.

"You _do _realize that crying is just making your smell stronger." he said through his nasally voice. "Someone is bound to come eventually, and they won't be as forgiving as me."

I just cried harder and wheeled myself towards him. "I don't even care anymore, Nico." I whimpered. "I've already ruined your life enough. I shouldn't live long enough to ruin someone else's." I took another shaky breath before continuing. "Just eat me." I whispered holding my arms out in front of me. "Just eat me before I can do any more damage to the world."

"I… I couldn't do that." he stuttered.

"But Nico!"

"It would be wrong!" he insisted.

"Then why don't I do it for you?' said a voice from behind me.

I had just enough time to take one last breath before suddenly, I felt something heavy hit my head, and everything went black.

_**Nico's POV**_

"Kelli!' I exclaimed running over. "I wasn't finished talking to her!"

Kelli just smirked and set the pizza box stage prop back down on the ground behind her. "Oh yes you were. Now let's eat before she wakes up and tries to kill us." She leaned over to bite Laina but I grabbed her shoulder before she could.

"Eat?" I asked. "I thought you didn't want to kill her? You told me back at the ice rink that your _real _plan was to make her hopeless and then bite her so that you had all of her power."

Kelli just chuckled and looked up from Laina's wrist that she was examining with greedy eyes. "Nico, darling, that wasn't my _real _plan. I never intended to keep her alive longer than was absolutely necessary." she laughed and stared at me as if I were some cute animal at the zoo. "Goodness, you can bite a guy and watch him get muscles the size of the moon and legs as long as a flagpole, but he will never, _ever_, get any smarter." she giggled again but I just continued staring.

"Explain to me your _real _plan, please." I asked after a moment.

She looked up at me recognizing the annoyance in my voice. "Oh Nico, darling, don't take it like that." she insisted, her eyes sad. "I didn't mean to call you dumb or anything." She walked up to me and fluttered her eyelashes. "Will you forgive me?" She laid her hand on my arm gently.

I stared into her pretty face for a few moments before gaining back my senses and clearing my throat. "Just tell me what your plan was."

She smiled and grasped my hand before sitting down right at Laina's feet. I did the same.

"It was actually pretty genius in a way." she said happily, her big smile returning. "I was to make Laina as hopeless as hopeless can be, and try to make her positive that she would have to kill herself. Once she was convinced, and had pushed that blade through her heart, or whatever, I would tell you the fake plan, the one where I was going to turn her Empousi. That way, you would lose all hope and I could bite you with no problem." she smiled like this was the greatest thing in the world. "I knew as soon as I caught sight of you two together, that killing her would be a problem if you were there." she stated. "I mean, if I ate her then you were just going to fight me, and because of my full stomach and unbalanced amount of body fat there was a strong chance I would lose. But, if I was somehow able to make _you _hopeless and bite _you_ before I ate _her_," she smiled bigger and stared off into the space in front of us. "Then, I could eat her and you wouldn't have a problem with it."

She looked at me, still smiling about the genius of it all, and I had to admit, she was smarter than we had given her credit for.

"But hold on," I said, for one thing still didn't make sense to me. "Why didn't you just eat her right after you bit me? I mean, I was already Empousi so I shouldn't have had a problem with it."

She nodded. "Yeah, that was what I had _planned _on doing, but then, though I doubt you would remember considering you were in the midst of your transformation, I received a phone call from Tanya. She told me about the mortal in the auditorium and honestly, she described her as being much more of a threat." She sighed sadly. "Tanya has always been afraid of humans. An embarrassment to our kind, if you ask me. I will have to talk to her later. But anyway, back to the story. After we were about ready to leave, that Russel boy attacked and well, I was full, already powerful, and I didn't have time to waste. So I left him with the girl, and transported us back here." She took a deep breath before continuing. "A few days passed and I knew that Laina would be coming to try to save you sooner or later. When Lindsey told me that she thought she heard someone in the lobby, I knew that it was her. I pretended to go down with Lindsey and Debbie to check things out when really, I stayed around you. Making sure that Laina didn't try to kill you or steal you or anything. But now," she said, turning to the unconscious goddess sitting helplessly in her wheelchair,

"We eat."

She held up Laina's left hand and gave the right one to me. For some reason my stomach was churning and despite the beautiful smell coming off of the girl, I really didn't want to eat her.

"To us." Kelli exclaimed smiling, holding up Laina's hand to toast the one in mine. I toasted her but I could feel the sweat dripping down my back. It was starting to come back to me. All of the reasons why I had once loved this girl.

"You can have the first bite." continued Kelli, positively beaming.

I nodded my thanks, but really, I was just trying to swallow the choking lump in my throat. She watched me intently, her free hand still holding mine. It wasn't until now that I recognized it as a safety precaution, not a sign of affection.

I had no choice now. I had to do it. I had to eat her.

I stared at the pitiful girl in the wheelchair. So unbelievably strong but now so weak and helpless. She smelled so good and my mouth was watering, but to me she was like oatmeal. It tastes so good and smells amazing but it just looks like barf. I feel way too weird eating it when it resembles something so gross. I felt like this now, only it was her beauty that kept me from eating her. Her inner beauty. How she was so concerned for me that she came the whole way in a wheelchair, knowing from the get go that it was practically a lost cause. What Kelli didn't understand is that despite this transformation, my sudden urge to eat every mortal in sight, my terrible craving for human flesh and blood, and my terrible attitude, I really did love Laina.

But regardless, I knew what I had to do.

I raised Laina's hand to my lips and sniffed. Kelli watched me intently, obviously suspicious. As gross as it made me feel, as revolting as it was, I knew what I had to do. My stomach churned at the awful thought of it, but I knew that it was the only way. I pressed my lips against Laina's hand and watched Kelli's expression.

I kissed her hand carefully, making sure not to let myself taste it. After a second or so I put it back on her lap.

"You wanna know what?" I asked Kelli who was staring at me with utmost astonishment. "I'm actually not hungry right now."

And _this _is where my story begins to get gross.

**Well, you guys might not think it's gross but remember, Nico is like, thirteen, in this story so it's gross for him. Anywho, the next chapter should be up in no time. Remember, I really, really need beta suggestions for when I go over my draft. If you know of anyone who was really good then please tell me. Thanks!**


	25. The Grossest Part of my Stupid Life

**See, I told you it'd be up quick! Go on, read. Warning, the middle is kinda boring but it does get better… I hope. **** Hmm, that's weird, I just typed in a smiley face and it turned into that… I really can't tell what it is. :P**

_**Nico's POV**_

**The Grossest Part of my Stupid Teenaged Life**

Kelli barely had a chance to respond before I was on her. I was kissing her longer than I had ever kissed my Teddy Bear on dare back at camp. It felt so gross and so wrong. I hated Kelli. I hated her so bad that I wanted to stab her with a sword and lock her up in Tartarus. In fact, I hated her so passionately that I almost pulled away, but I knew what I had to do. I wasn't really focusing on her, but it occurred to me in the small portion of my brain that was still thinking "_EWWWW_!" that she had begun to kiss me back.

"_Good." _I thought. _"It's working."_

It was then that I started my plan, working on getting myself in just the right position. What was my plan, you ask? Kelli's old one.

Distract her with what she thinks is the real strategy when actually, I'm planning the real one right behind her back. In my case, literally.

Being a son of Hades I had never been much of a romantic, but I swear, if Aphrodite were watching me at this moment, then she would be giggling like nobody's business. Another thought that occurred to me is what Laina would be saying if she were watching us. I peeped open an eye and to my relief she was still out cold in her chair, her hand folded neatly in her lap right where I had placed it. I finished up the remaining preparations for my plan and wrapped my arms around her waist in a, supposed, romantic way.

Oh, if only Kelli knew why I had placed them there.

Eventually she pulled away from me and I almost sighed with relief. But thank the gods I caught myself in time. Kelli smiled at me.

"If I had known you were such a romantic I would've bitten you ages ago." she whispered smiling.

I pretended to laugh and pulled her even closer, successfully placing my hands right where they needed to be.

"I don't know Kells," I began, smiling as best I could. "I don't think I'd be doing this a few weeks ago."

She cocked her head and pouted. "You don't think you'd be kissing me?"

I allowed an evil smile to form on my face and I touched my nose to hers.

"Actually," I whispered, "I was referring to this."

I seized the heavy pizza box from behind Kelli. At the same time as I pretended to kiss her again, I brought the box down on her head with such force that I heard a sickening crack as the box, along with whatever was in the box snapped in half as it collided with her skull. I smiled as I watched her eyes roll back into their sockets. She collapsed onto my lap with a thud.

I pulled off the broken halves of cardboard and nearly laughed out loud when I uncovered three books on how to use face paint, snapped in half, right through the middle. After a moment or two of admiring my work, I pushed the Empousi off of me and chained her arms behind her back with a piece of rope I found in the storage hallway that was part of backstage. I tied her up very tightly, tying knot after knot, making sure that she had no means of escape.

"And now," I said to myself as I loaded her onto Laina's wheelchair, "the best part."

I grabbed a sheet from backstage and tossed it over the girls, making sure that nobody could see any part of either of them. All I had to do was grab Addison, and leave. Then, I could shadow travel us back to camp, get Laina some help, dispose of the unconscious Empousa, and get the venom out of me somehow. Everything would be fine.

I turned to go get the wheelchair but it wasn't there. I looked around frantically but it wasn't until I turned completely around, that I saw it.

"Looking for something?" asked a voice behind me.

I whirled around and nearly peed myself when I saw a familiar blonde leaning casually against the side of the wheelchair.

"Todd," I gasped.

He smiled. "Nice little performance you put on there. With _my _girlfriend, I might add."

I blushed. "Oh, you saw that?"

He nodded, crossing his arms.

"Well don't worry," I said quickly. "it wasn't for real."

Todd nodded. "Ahh, yes. The real purpose of kissing my girlfriend like that was to whack her upside the head with a pizza box. Yes Nico, that's much better."

I let out a huff of breath. "You know very well that it was the only way to keep her from eating Laina."

"Oh yeah, Laina." He smiled, looking down at the wheelchair in his hands. "I remember healing her after Kelli shot her in the neck." he shook his head, laughing. "My my, how ironic that is."

My jaw dropped to my chest. "Kelli was the demon who shot Laina?"

He snorted and replied with false enthusiasm. "Wow, Nico. Maybe you could be a real detective someday!"

I was too infuriated to respond.

"Let's see if you can figure something else out." he said, resting his arms casually on the back of the wheelchair. Do you remember that fight that happened in the beginning of the year, Nico? That one where the demons were fighting each other?"

I remembered it all right. That was the fight where I lost the shirt to the thing in the attic. I didn't tell Todd that, though. I just nodded.

"Well," he continued. "I found out recently that you went to the attic to try to save the transformation shirt from Kelli."

My eyes widened. "How do you know that?" I demanded. "How do you even know about the shirt in the first place?"

Todd chuckled. "Nico, Nico, Nico. _This _was the part that I was hoping you'd figure out on your own."

I wracked my brain. "It was Kelli in the attic, wasn't it?" I said finally. "She took the shirt and then used it to pretend to be my mom in order to steal some of Laina's power."

Todd smiled. "You're getting there. You're correct so far. Kelli took the shirt from the attic. She told a group of demons to form a line in front of where the magical boundaries would usually be. That way, when she stole the fleece and entered, no other demons would follow. If the non loyal demons got passed us and started attacking camp, then the demigods would immediately go and guard the place where the most important magical items are. The attic. And that was where Kelli was, of course. Now you're probably wondering, why didn't I just steal the shirt in the first place? I was already in camp, it shouldn't have been that hard."

I opened my mouth to speak but he cut me off.

"But that's where you're wrong." he glared at me as if this was all my fault. "I couldn't steal the shirt because Chiron was already suspicious of me. He had caught me in the attic many times when I shouldn't have been. He suspected me of being a traitor, but he was never sure. If the shirt was taken during a time when he didn't know where I was, then he would know immediately that it was me.

"Very good work for a monster," he said smiling at me, "but there's still one more fact you're missing."

I concentrated so hard, I felt myself sweating. There was something I was overlooking. Something about Todd, something he was proud of. It was something that he did to contribute to this whole ordeal. Something…

Eventually, after much concentration, I got it.

"_You_ told Kelli about the shirt." I said. It wasn't a question, it was fact.

"_You_ told her about what it could do, and what you would be capable of if you got a hold of it. _You _were the whole reason this… _thing_ started. Kelli didn't come up with the plan of using Laina's power and turning me into an Empousa. You did."

Todd didn't immediately respond. He just smiled. "Yes Nico," he said eventually, "you are correct._ I_ came up with the plan, not Kelli. She could never think of something as genius as this. She only has power, not smarts. I had a perfect plan and all I needed was somebody powerful enough to carry it out. If I found a being strong enough, then I could rule the world. Pretty smart. But I _knew_ you would get in the way, Nico. I knew you could never be a real, loyal Empousa after all you'd been through. No amount of venom could change that. But I'm sorry to say, that now you're stuck as something that you're not, forever, because guess what." he didn't wait for my answer, before continuing. "Your only hope is about to be eaten."

With those last words, he grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and tried to shove past me, out in front of the curtain. But unfortunately for him, because of the transformation I was much faster than an average demigod. I had grabbed a strip of wood, swung it at Todd, and regained custody over the wheelchair, all in the amount of time it took him to breathe and fall down. I tried to escape backstage, but he was in my way. When I tried to pass him, he pulled out a sword and nearly sliced off my head.

"Sorry Nico, I just can't allow that." he muttered, pushing me away with the butt of his blade. He lunged for the chair but I yanked it away just in time. He held out his sword and I held out my piece of wood. He attempted to strike my head again, but luckily my Empousa instincts kicked in and I swung the wood at his feet causing him to trip. I tried to grab the girls and run away but he got up hastily and followed me. I was so close to escaping, it was crazy, but sadly, only milliseconds later he had grabbed part of the wheelchair and we were both trying to yank it out of each other's hands.

"Give – It – To – Me!" he snarled, pulling with all his might.

"Not – Likely!" I shot back, yanking as hard as I could.

Suddenly he swung the sword out from behind his back, and I was caught off guard. It hit my cheek with an eerie scraping noise and soon my face was spilling sand.

"OW!" I yelled, dropping the chair almost immediately in order to clutch my stinging flesh. I felt myself being knocked to the ground and when I finally opened my eyes I saw Todd smiling, the chair in his hands.

"Wowee," he said, still breathing heavily from our fight, "Kelli and Laina. Two for two today." he smiled one last time before turning around.

"No." I whispered weakly.

But he had already sprinted away.

I felt my eyes stinging. There was no hope now. Everything that I had strived for was gone, and not just Laina and Kelli. Me, my dignity, my family. Everybody I loved was gone. I hadn't realized this before because I was too caught up in being the first male Empousa, but now it hit me hard.

I was done.

The burning in my cheek was forgotten now, tears springing to life in my eyes and tracing crossroads down my aching skin. My wound burned and although it wasn't bloody, sand was still tricking down my face. I tried to get up but it was no use. I was hopeless.

"Please dad." I whispered, closing my eyes in concentration. "Please help her. I can't let the other monsters eat her. She doesn't deserve it. She's practically mortal." I let more tears spill as I begged. "Please."

Everything was quiet for a moment. Just me and my soft breathing, waiting for the moment that I felt the nearest soul gone from existence. I knew that I only felt the pang of death in my heart if it was the death of someone nearby, so when I felt that pang, as hard as it could be, I knew that she was gone. Dead. Eaten alive.

I wept for a few moments, silently into my sleeve. It wasn't fair, she was so innocent. A mere child, almost like myself, except she'd never hurt a soul.

I continued my quiet sobbing, wishing with all my heart that this was just a dream. That next I would wake up in my cabin, that day that seemed so long ago. The day that Annabeth shook me out of my dream and tried to convince me that Laina was going to go into a vegetative state. The time before I cared about this girl so much. Before I talked to her and went on a quest with her. Before her life and soul ever mattered to me. Before I had ever really lived.

I was so caught up in my crying, in fact, that at first I didn't hear the yelling.

"That's right you filthy human," an Empousa lashed "you get what you deserve!" I heard the sound of a sword hitting a living thing, over and over again, chopping the victim into eatable pieces that could never be put back together again. I heard the sound of that blade, forcing itself right through the center of the body and grazing the floor below it.

"Oh!" I yelped, feeling the remnants of that pang in my heart that proved that she had died.

"Nico?' someone asked from the other room.

I didn't respond. Never would I respond to the moronic fool who killed her.

"Nico?" she asked again, turning to look around the corner. Debbie stepped out and I felt a sudden strike of rage. I got up from the ground shakily, holding my sword out, ready to stab her for all she was worth.

"Nico!" she gasped. "What's wrong?"

I glared at her, my eyesight turning red as I zeroed in on her heart. Being half mortal, if I killed her then she would perish forever. "You… You killed." I whispered.

Debbie's face fell as she understood my rage. "I did what I had to do, Nico." she said quietly.

I just stepped closer. "You ended a life, Debbie. The life of someone I loved."

She tripped over her words, trying to figure out the right way to respond. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't know you two were that close."

"That _close_!" I yelled.

"I assure you!" she cried. "The world's a better place now!"

I let out a roar and pushed her back against a wall, a kitchen knife from the prop hallway at her throat. "What do you mean the world is _better _without her, Debbie? How can things possibly be _better _when Laina is _dead_?" I sobbed, pushing the knife into her neck, drawing a little of her foolish blood. I glared into those helpless, half human eyes. They were never superior to mine. Never. No matter what Kelli thought, Debbie was a monster, one worse than any of the others. She didn't have to be pureblood to prove it.

"_You killed her_!" I shouted, practically spitting into her face.

"Nico," she stuttered, "you don't understand."

"Oh, I understand quite enough!" I snapped. "You are the reason my life is ruined. _You are the reason Laina is dead!_"

I shot those last words at her with so much force, it was a miracle she didn't die right then and there. She closed her eyes, preparing for her death, and I was about ready to give it to her too, but as it turns out, I didn't get a chance to.

"Did somebody say my name?" called a weak voice from the other side of the curtain.

I looked away from Debbie for a split second and tried to see who it was. "Who said that?" I called.

"Nico?" they asked weakly.

I looked back at Debbie. "Who is that?" I asked her, still holding the blade in a threatening position.

"It's… It's her." she stuttered.

"Her?" I asked. "Her, who? Her, Kelli?"

Debbie shook her head, wincing as my blade scraped her, already wounded, neck. "Her, her." she took a deep breath. "Her, Laina."

I stared at Debbie in shock. "But," I stuttered, "but that _can't _be true. I heard you. I heard you yelling about a filthy human, and then you stabbed someone, over and over again, and then I felt someone's death, someone nearby, and-"

"That wasn't her, Nico." she said quietly.

I continued staring at her, not blinking. "But then who-"

She took a shaky breath, and her eyes closed. I could tell she didn't want to tell me but she knew she had to. "My father, Nico." she said finally, opening her eyes to look at me.

"I killed Todd."

**Yikes, pretty harsh, huh? I'm really excited. Why? THIS DARNED THING IS ALMOST FINISHED! I'm actually sad… really… I am…**

**Pft! Anyway, like always, I really need beta suggestions. I haven't gotten any yet. The next chapter should be up in no time, though I would really appreciate some reviews. I have no idea if I'm doing good or bad. It doesn't have to be any more than one sentence, really. I would just appreciate a good, "Wowza! This story is really good!" or a "Hmm, your writing could use a little work." Honestly, I'd even except a, "WHAT THE #$ IS THIS &%$#? YOU'RE THE WORST $*%# WRITER IN THE WHOLE %#&*# WORLD!"**

**Weird, it did it again.**


	26. The Forgotten Monster

**Okay, here's chapter 26 I believe. I don't think this is going to be too many more chapters (THANK THE GODS) so don't worry. I'm skiing at the moment so I should have enough free time to write. Maybe I can finish the ending and have more chapters up but this is all I have pre-written at the moment. Regardless, READ ON.**

_**Nico's POV**_

**The Forgotten Monster**

I probably should have cared.

I mean, Todd was dead, gone, down in the underworld. Killed by his own daughter. But to be perfectly honest, I really didn't. All that mattered to me was that Laina was alive, I didn't care how. As soon as she said those words I felt as if I had just come back from the dead. I dropped my knife almost immediately and ran towards the curtain. Laina was waiting on her knees, just around a corner and I nearly started sobbing again when I saw her. I don't even really remember what happened next. I just remember running over to hug her and nearly tripping over my own feet.

"Oh my gods." she mumbled in my ear after I had grabbed her in my arms.

"I know." I said back. "This is so crazy."

"No," she said, "I wasn't referring to that."

I pulled back to look at her. She laughed when she saw my confused expression. "Nico, dear," she said, in mid giggle. "You _really _need to get a decent brand of eyeliner." she put her thumbs under my eyes and wiped off some of the black.

I was too happy to groan. Instead I leaned in to kiss her. Not Kelli, not Debbie, not my teddy bear back at camp, but Laina.

But unfortunately, we didn't get far.

"Laina!" I someone called. She turned away a just before we met.

I let out a groan.

"Oh hush." she said goofily, pushing me off her.

I grinned.

"Laina!" the mysterious person called again. Russel emerged from the curtain, covered in monster sand and, what looked like, golden ichor.

"Laina." he said one last time, scooping her up in a big hug. She didn't object and I felt myself glare. I tried not to be jealous as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Get off me, Russel." she growled. I couldn't help but smile as he confusedly let go.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

She scowled. "Well normally, I would be. But ever since you ditched us halfway through the quest, I've begun to have mixed feelings about you."

He sighed. "I swear, Lain, I have an explanation, I-" He was cut off by a group of familiar people.

"Laina? Nico?" Jack asked, pushing through the curtain, his face bloody and sand covered.

"Oh, thank the gods!" exclaimed Aphrodite, running into the room, her designer clothes ripped and torn and golden blood covered. She wrapped her arms around her daughter like any mother would and whimpered. "I thought we'd lost you _again_."

Next to come in was Travis, carrying a bleeding, but giggling Lillian.

"Tell me another, tell me another!" she begged.

"Let me think." he said, pausing for a moment. "Aha!" he smiled. "Why do you play capture the flag when you've already captured my heart?" he asked happily.

Lillian burst out laughing and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Another! Another!"

Addison stumbled in next, holding a big orange traffic cone that was covered in sand. "It kind of looks like a duck beak." she mumbled dizzily before collapsing on the ground right then and there.

Russel took one last look at Laina who was comforting a crying Aphrodite and went to go help her. I decided to follow him.

"I suppose it was just too much for her." I said, kneeling down next to him to help wipe some of the sand off of the girl.

"Way too much." he said with a sigh. "She fought like any of us. And using a traffic cone, of all things."

"Yeah, mortals have some pretty weird strategies." I said, thinking of Rachel back at camp with her blue plastic hairbrush.

I helped him lean Addison up against a storage box. Things had always seemed brotherly between Russel and I. We teased each other, tried to get Laina on our sides of the argument. But now things just seemed awkward. I could tell he saw it too, because he was staring off into space, extremely quiet. I decided to break the silence and finally ask the question that had been bugging me for days.

"Why did you ditch us?' I asked at last.

Russel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. At first I didn't think he was going to respond, but soon enough he did. "It's a long, confusing story." he mumbled in a dismissive tone.

I decided I wasn't going to except that answer and I let out a low growl. "Well," I began, my voice venomous, "I think I'd like to hear it, considering the fact that because of it, I have been forced to spend the last week or so doing everything in my power to keep the girl you seem to love alive for you, while you're off on some vacation or something." took a deep breath before adding sternly, "I'd like to hear this story."

He stared at me for a second, probably not used to seeing me so serious. I think he understood that I wasn't going to let up, but he still wasn't willing. "I can't tell you now." he said firmly. "We don't have enough time. But I will. I promise I will."

I let out a groan. "That's not enough, Russel." I stared at him. "Do you know how hard it's been for us? Do you know the things we have had to go through in order to keep ourselves alive? You left us when we needed you most and now you come back, happy and cheery, thinking that we don't expect an explanation."

"I know that you want an explanation," he said, "I understand that-"

"Well I don't think you do." I interrupted loudly. At this point everyone was staring at us, waiting to see what would happen next. I was breathing hard, and even though Kelli was tied up and Todd's dead, chopped up, corpse lay untouched at our feet, I still felt unhappy. Maybe it was part of the transformation, I didn't know, but I did know that I was just about ready to punch Russel in the face.

Apparently Laina saw this, because she limped over to us and placed a hand on each of our shoulders.

"Guys," she said quietly, "I know we all need to talk, but we have more important matters to attend to right now. Todd's dead, Kelli's unconscious, Lillian seems to have hurt her leg, Nico will be an Empousa forever if we don't get the venom out of him by midnight, and I still need blessings from four of the gods." she took a deep breath. "We'll work this out later, I promise."

I wanted Russel to explain right this minute, but I didn't want to make her mad so I was silent.

"Everything will be alright." she whispered, giving us each a kiss on the cheek.

I decided to let it drop… for now.

Because nobody else had the guts to do it, Jack wrapped Todd's remains up in the blanket that I had used to put over the wheelchair. I used up most of my remaining strength to create a crevice that led straight down to Tartarus, to drop Kelli in. She wouldn't be plotting anything anytime soon. Meanwhile, Travis took a look at Lillian's leg and after much time and a good deal of help from the rest of us, he determined that although it wasn't broken, it was badly sprained. Aphrodite explained to Laina and me about how Russel had appeared out of nowhere and told tell them that we needed help, and they had fought the monsters together. That gained me a little more respect for the guy, but I wasn't ready to apologize or anything. They each told of their experiences and it was actually quite enjoyable. But partway through Travis's vivid description of the ever so fierce Lillian in battle, I noticed Debbie leaning against the curtain a few yards away.

"I'll be right back." I told Travis and Lillian, glad to get away from their giggling. I walked up to Debbie cautiously. I remembered what she did to Todd, and was a little scared, but she didn't look very threatening at the moment.

"Um hi." I said quietly.

She didn't look up. "Hi Nico." she said dully.

I noticed her cheeks were read and her eyes were tearstained.

"Umm, are you… alright?" I cringed at how stupid I sounded. Duh she wasn't alright; she just killed her own father. "Never mind," I added quickly, before she could say anything, "Don't answer that."

She gave a bleak smile. "Good, I wasn't sure if I should lie or not."

I nodded awkwardly back. After a moment or two of silence I opened my mouth to say something, but Jack walked over right at that exact moment.

"Hey Nico, we're ready to get going – Hey, who's this?" he stared at Debbie, his lips forming a wily smile.

I looked over at Debbie, expecting her to answer, but she was staring off into space with a depressed expression on her face.

"This is Debbie," I sighed, "She killed Todd."

As soon as I said it, I knew it was the wrong thing to say. Debbie let out a whimper and slid down so that she was sitting on the ground. She hid her head behind her knees. "It wasn't on purpose." she moaned, rocking back and fourth. "I couldn't control myself."

Jack let out a quiet laugh and sat down next to her, allowing me to sit on the other side.

"Don't sweat it, girl." he assured her, patting her shoulder. "I'm sure that, if he had survived, Todd would've killed many innocent people. You did the right thing."

She looked up at him and suddenly I felt like part of a dramatic scene in a movie. "Really?" she asked. "You think so?"

He nodded and wiped a tear off her cheek with his thumb. "_I _think so. I'd say the moron deserved it."

She smiled but shook her head uncertainly. "Maybe he did, but he was my _father. _It's not really nice to kill people you're related to.

"They do enough of _that _in Greek mythology." I snorted shrugging my shoulders. "And anyway, he didn't treat you much like a daughter. In fact, he was just talking about you a little while ago and he was saying some really rude stuff." I looked over at Jack. "I agree with Jack. You did the right thing."

She nodded, completely lost in thought. "Jack." she stated quietly.

I knew I should've left as soon as I saw the trainer's evil smile, but sadly I didn't. "Yup, that's my name." he grinned happily. "But seriously," he said, his expression suddenly turning serious. "I need you to cheer up. Poseidon seems busy these days and I need _somebody _to rock my world."

Debbie seemed to choke on her own spit and I chuckled. "Get that one from Travis?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Actually, no. It was the one I used on my wife the first time I saw her."

Debbie blinked. "Wait you have a wife?"

I thought her disappointed expression was funny.

"Well, I did." he sighed. "She died from a monster attack earlier this year."

"That's terrible!" Debbie gasped, though I could see her relieved expression

"Your wife died?" I asked, suddenly serious.

He nodded. "Yeah, I wasn't able to stop the Hydra in time." he shook his head and I could tell he blamed himself for this. "She was a vampire, actually. A beautiful one, though they all are." he turned to Debbie, with a half smile. "You remind me of her, actually."

She giggled and blushed.

I cleared my throat. "I'm gonna, erm, leave now…"

Jack chuckled. "You do that."

I got up from the ground, leaving Jack and Debbie alone, and went back to where everyone else was. When I got there, Aphrodite was trying to teach Laina how to create fire so that they could burn Todd's body together. Russel was sitting down next to Addison, staring at nothing. Argus was nearby and was humming nonchalantly, and Lillian and Travis were off against the wall giggling at yet another one of his Greek pick-up lines.

I walked over to Aphrodite and Laina.

"When are we planning on heading out?" I asked. "And for that matter, where are we planning on going?"

Aphrodite turned away from Laina who was still unaccomplished at creating fire but had succeeded in making tufts of smoke come out of her ears.

"Well," said Aphrodite, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Right now it's about ten thirty. If we plan on sucking the venom out of you by midnight, then we need to that soon. Laina and I are just going to finish burning Todd's body, and then we are going to get down to business. After you're a normal demigod again, we'll head on up to Olympus to get Laina's final blessings. When that's done it should be morning and we can go back to Camp Half-Blood and maybe get some sleep."

I yawned. The sleep idea was sounding pretty good to me. I watched Laina and Aphrodite for a few minutes and giggled every time smoke came out of Laina's ears. Laina got so fed up with my laughing that she almost strangled me. But eventually, probably because of her anger, she was able to burn his body, and we were ready to go.

"Laina, Nico, Lillian, Travis, Russel, Addison, Jack, and Argus. Is everyone here?" called Aphrodite, reading off of a clipboard.

"Yes." we all called at various times.

"Aphrodite," said Jack, pulling Debbie towards her.

"Is that a leftover monster?" she asked looking up. "Don't worry I can kill her." she held up her hands, about ready to shoot out a column of fire. Debbie screamed.

"No!" Jack and I yelled at the same time.

Aphrodite held her hands up defensively. "Alright, alright, I just figured that since she is a monster-"

"She's only half monster." said Jack. "She shouldn't be too dangerous. She might have a rebellious streak in her though." he swatted her arm affectionately.

Debbie giggled for what seemed like the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes.

Aphrodite looked from Jack to Debbie, and a smile slowly formed on her lips. "Are you asking if she can join us, Jack?"

Jack blushed for what was probably the first time in his life. "Yeah," he said quietly, staring into Debbie's eyes, "I guess I am."

Laina caught my eye and raised her eyebrows. I imitated her.

"Alright then." said Aphrodite, her eyes sparkling.

Jack was too happy to glare at her.

"Gather your things everyone!" Aphrodite sung. Travis picked Lillian up with a sly smile and she giggled. Jack grabbed Debbie's hand and they stood together at the ready. Russel tossed Addison over his shoulder and Argus stood up.

Everything was set up to work out fine.

So naturally, it didn't.

We heard the roaring only milliseconds later.

"What was that?" asked Addison, still half asleep on Russel's shoulder.

We all looked behind us to where it seemed to be coming from: The prop hall.

We heard more roaring and thumping but nobody was sure what it was. Everyone pulled out a weapon and Russel handed Addison her orange traffic cone.

Suddenly Laina gasped. "The Cyclopes!"

We all looked at her.

"The what?" I asked.

She hit herself in the forehead. "How could I have forgotten about him? It's been ages. Of course he has unfrozen! My cell phone must have vibrated while I was unconscious." she shook her head. "Sorry guys. We have one more monster left to fight."

"What happened, Laina?" Aphrodite asked, crossing her arms over her ripped shirt.

Laina sighed. "I used that curse. The stunning one that you used on Debbie and that other Empousa. I was trying to get backstage and he was guarding the door." she shook her head. "I can't believe I forgot about him. It's been ages since I stunned him. In fact," she exclaimed, "I'm surprised he didn't find us before."

"No!" exclaimed Aphrodite, closing her eyes.

"What?" Laina asked, "What'd I do?"

"Laina," began Aphrodite, speaking through clenched teeth, "as much as I'm glad you are alive, never, and I mean _never_, use a curse you haven't actually learned."

"But it worked!" she insisted. "He was stunned almost immediately!"

Aphrodite took a deep breath, staring into the prop hall in fear. "I'm sure he was," she said glumly, "but when a god or goddess performs a curse they have to go through a ton of preparation beforehand. If you don't do the preparations then the monster you preformed it on will, not only gain the ability to perform the curse you used on them, correctly, but the curse being used will be three times more powerful."

Laina stared at Aphrodite in fear. "So that means, that because I didn't do the preparations correctly on the Cyclopes, then if he stuns one of us…" She trailed off.

"If he stuns one of us," Aphrodite continued for her, "then the victim will be dazed for sixty minutes instead of twenty.

"But that would be past twelve and-" I cut myself off sharp as the truth began to form in my head.

"Laina," said Jack looking at the goddess, seeming scared for the first time in his life, "if you get stunned by this Cyclopes, which you very well might, then you will be stunned until around midnight."

"Which means," Travis said, wide eyed, "that you won't be able to suck the venom out of Nico."

"Which means," I added for the final time, "I'll be stuck as an Empousa forever."

And with those final words, echoing in peoples' heads like the pitiful pep cry in a lost battle, the Cyclopes, over ten feet tall, charged out from backstage, roaring like a lion.

Nobody even tried to move as he turned his bloodshot eye towards Laina and bellowed the last word I wanted to hear.

"PAGOMA!" he hollered ferociously.

I felt my monster instincts kicking in. My eyesight turned hazy and I had the sudden urge to eat every human in sight. I had lost all control of my senses. It wasn't until Laina froze in mid breath, her eyes closed in fear, that the haze went away.

For now, it was almost certain. I was stuck as a bloodthirsty demon for the rest of my life.

**Mwahaha! I feel evil.**

**By the way, thanks to those of you that reviewed for the last two chapters. When I saw that I had gotten three new ones, I made a noise that was pig worthy. So, thanks everyone!**


	27. Golden Ichor is not as Good as it Sounds

**LAST REAL CHAPTER! YAY! FINALLY! I'm so relieved. Now all I have left is an epilogue! WOOHOO!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor Play That Funky Music (by Wild Cherry) though I love that song!**

_**Laina's POV**_

**Golden Ichor is Not as Delicious as it Sounds**

It's not fun being frozen.

I'll just leave it at that. My feet got tired quickly and I longed and longed to open my eyes. When at last the hour was up, the world came tumbling back onto me like an avalanche. I fell over on the ground, spazzing and breathing heavily, my heart thundering for no apparent reason. My eyesight was blurry but I could make out the silhouettes of the people around me. After I blinked a few times Jack became visible. He was on the ground with Debbie, snoozing, her head on his chest. Travis had his arm around Lillian who was sleeping right next to him, and Argus and Aphrodite, being the immortals, had probably left to go somewhere, not able to sleep. Nico was lying on the ground near my feet and I gasped out loud when I saw him. His jaw was clenched and he looked like he was in terrible pain. His joints were all pointed in odd angles and his chest was heaving slower than it probably should have been. All of those things were pretty weird but what caught my eye the most was the blood. There was quite a lot of it. There was a large puddle of red on his neck and upper chest area. His white t-shirt was absolutely ruined, but that didn't matter to me. I leaned over to get a better look at him, and determined that the flow was coming from his neck.

"Stereotypical." I mumbled to myself.

I pulled off my sweat jacket and wiped some of the blood off of his skin. On his neck there were bite marks. When I touched one with my finger he shuddered and clenched his jaw even harder.

"Sorry." I mumbled to nobody.

I stared at those bite marks, for something about them struck me as weird. There weren't just two of them, but eight or so, shaped like a regular human's teeth. With a start, I remembered that demons bleed sand, not the deep red blood that was now trickling down his chest.

"Maybe it's just part of the transformation process." I said to myself. I stared into his face. How could he be in such pain and agony, yet not cry out? I ignored the blood and placed my head on his stomach.

How could I have been so stupid? I shouldn't have used that curse on the Cyclopes without knowing exactly how to use it. Now, because of me and my stupid ideas, Nico was stuck as monster who feeds off of human flesh and blood. He wasn't a killer. I knew for a fact that he wouldn't live more than a week as a demon.

And it was all my fault.

A few dumb tears streamed down my face. I was surprised I even had any left, after crying so much lately. I felt Nico stirring and it occurred to me in the back of my mind that I probably should get off of him so that I didn't make him hungrier. I didn't want to, though, and I just stayed put. I heard him breathe a deep breath and yawn.

"Laina?" he asked in a tired voice.

I didn't know what to say so I resorted to a weak, "I'm sorry."

He just breathed for a moment, and I felt his heart beat at a rate that was closer to normal. "It's alright." he whispered at last. He laid his hand on my head and we just stayed like that for few moments. "Laina?" he asked after a moment.

"Yes?"

He took a shaky breath. Do you think you can tell me what happened?"

I took his hand off of my head and held it in my own.

"What do you mean?"

"What happened." he repeated. "All I remember is you being frozen, and then us all fighting the Cyclopes and then Jack jumping up to kill him and being stunned. But then his sword fell into the Cyclopes's eye and he blindly ran away." He took a deep breath. I could tell that just talking to me was making him winded. "And then Aphrodite and Argus went to go find food and we all laid down to sleep." he continued. "And then I was asleep and I just faintly remember this searing pain. I don't even know where it came from. I know you can see when you're stunned. Can… Can you tell me what happened after that?"

I sighed. "I wish I could. Stupid me, closed my eyes before I got stunned and wasn't able to see anything." I looked up at him. "I'm sorry."

"That's… That's alright." he said finally. "I just really want to know what that pain was and what I looked like in mid transform-"

"Nico, is Laina unfrozen?" asked Debbie, stretching.

"Yeah," he sighed, "She's right here."

Debbie got up and walked over to us. "Hey." she said quietly.

"Hi." we mumbled.

"Nico?" she asked sitting down.

"Yeah?" he asked glumly. We both sat up but I kept his hand in my grip.

"I can – erm - help you find some – er – thing to eat." she said sadly. "I know you're probably starving."

I gave a whimper and he sighed. "Thanks Debbie, but I'm not hungry."

"No." I let out a shaky breath and turned to look at him. "It's alright, Nico. It's my fault that you're a demon, I can live with the fact that now, you have to eat… living things." I closed my eyes and shuddered.

He squeezed my hand. "Actually, I'm being honest. I don't even feel like eating flesh right now. In fact, I'm kinda in the mood for a nice juicy hamburg – OUCH!"

Travis and Lillian stirred and opened their eyes. Jack jolted awake and scared me to death when he held up Addison's traffic cone yelling, "Whassat?"

Nico, to my disgust, reached down the leg of his jeans and pulled out a piece of paper with a pin attached.

"Um," I said, "do I want to know why you just pulled a piece of paper out of your pants?"

He glared at me. "I did _not_ put that there. And seriously, there is a _pin _attached to this thing."

"Well what does it say?" asked Jack, snatching the paper out of his hands.

"Hey!" said Nico.

"It's from Russel." said Jack after a moment of examination.

"He put it in my pants?" Nico exclaimed, a look of horror on his face.

Jack nodded. "Yeah, he says sorry, but he had to make sure you wouldn't lose it."

"He _put _it _in _my _pants_." said Nico, still looking terrified.

"Better your pants than your underwear." said Travis smugly.

Nico punched him.

"Speaking of which," continued Jack, "He says, nice skull shorts, Skele-Brain." Jack raised his eyebrows and smiled. Nico's face turned red and he looked about ready to explode as we all giggled.

"Just read!" Nico spat.

"Okay, okay." Jack continued reading silently and we waited. Suddenly he raised his eyebrows and whispered, "Whoa!"

"What?" we all asked at once.

"Read it for yourself." said Jack, handing me the note.

With only slight hesitation, I took the note between my first two fingers and read it out loud.

'_Everyone,_

_I am terribly sorry that I was not able to stay long enough to explain myself. I know I promised you lot an explanation but I am afraid that it will have to be postponed. I have stuck this note into the dear Nico's pants so that you will not miss it in your haste to get to Olympus (By the way, I'm loving the skulls, mate__). Anyway, I would like to explain briefly that although Laina was unconscious, I was able to suck the venom out of Nico's bloodstream while he was asleep, which explains the bite marks on his neck. Unfortunately it is very messy business which explains the pool of blood. Our dear Nico should be back to his normal self, and probably about ready to pulverize me which, I have no doubts, he will. I am standing by my promise to give you an explanation when I find you again, but for now, please sleep. I have arranged by note for you to have a meeting with the gods tomorrow at eight p.m. I figured you did not think of scheduling an appointment so I took that matter into my own hands. I will try my hardest to contact you in time to see you before your meeting to grant you good luck, but if I am unsuccessful, then I will tell you now._

_Laina, love, you'll make an amazing goddess. Although your power may be more limited than you expected, I am sure that everything will work out. I love you and I hope that you understand my apologies of leaving you so soon, but I cannot stay. I will give you my promised explanation as soon as I can, but until then, goodbye._

_Sincerely,_

_Russel'_

The room was quiet for a moment after I read. Nobody knew quite how to respond to the things Russel had talked about in his letter. We weren't sure if we should be happy that Nico was normal again or angry that we still hadn't gotten our explanation, and Russel had ditched us once again. Personally, I was wondering what he meant when he said that my powers would be more limited than I thought.

I looked over at Nico. He was staring down at the blood dripping off his neck, a look of amazement on his face.

"Nico?" I whispered, placing my hand on his arm.

He continued staring blankly at his blood, not even comprehending what I was saying.

"Nico are you okay?" I asked again.

Finally he looked over at me. "That idiot of an Australian put a pin in my pants to tell me that he sucked the venom out of my neck and that I'm now completely human?"

I didn't know what to say so I didn't respond.

"What a life." he sighed before wrapping his arms around me, kissing my forehead, and pulling me next to him, to finally fall into a peaceful sleep.

The next day, we had fun.

Well, as much fun as you can have when you're living in an abandoned auditorium. We played with the props from the hallway, and put on goofy plays on the stage. We found a piano in the prop hall and after it was carried out by Jack, Travis, and Argus, both Lillian and Nico showed what they could do. They were both great but Lillian was unfathomably good. You'd be surprised at how fast her dainty little hands could scurry down the keys. To my surprise, Nico was very good as well and he knew a lot of songs I liked.

I think the best time we had was when we performed, Romeo and Juliet the Comedy, where Travis was Romeo and Lillian was Juliet. The best part was right after 'Romeo' and 'Juliet' kissed for the first time, and Lillian said to Argus (your average pedestrian), "Darwin, get a (**beep**)ing gun and shoot me."

We all cracked up, and laughed even harder when Travis leaned in to kiss her again.

All in all, it was probably the best 10 hours of my life.

But sadly, it went by fast. Soon we were ready to head out for Olympus and were packing up our few belongings. I was just finishing my disgusting job of wiping the bloodstains off of the floor, when he appeared in front of my face in a column of fire.

"Ahh!" I screamed, jumping back.

"Sorry!" he exclaimed, bending down to help me up.

"Russel?"

He smiled and pulled me up off the ground. "I'm sorry to appear so suddenly, and I'm afraid, leave so quickly, but I had to talk to you before I left."

I looked up at his face. Even though it hadn't been long since I had seen him, he looked different. His face had a few more lines and his chin had grown a few whiskers even though he was only about thirteen. I ignored that, though, and looked around for everyone else, but they were off doing other preparations. I looked back at Russel. "Let me just get the others and you can give your explanation." I turned to go but he grabbed my arm.

"I'm sorry, Laina." he said sorrowfully. "You're going to have to wait a little longer. I don't have enough time."

I scowled and crossed my arms. "I'm starting to think that I am never going to get this explanation, Russel. I've been waiting for it ever since we got Athena's and Artemis's blessings, and I'm getting impatient." I looked up into his stimulating eyes and sighed. Continuing with a low voice I said, "I want to know how you were able to drink the venom out of Nico, and why you said in your letter that I might not be as powerful as I think I'll be."

He shook his head and put his hand on my shoulder. "I _know _that Laina, and I will explain later, but right now I'm just here to walk you to Olympus and wish you good luck." He squeezed my shoulder. "I'm sorry."

I looked down at my shoes. "Do you promise to give me an explanation as soon as we're out of Olympus?"

He smiled, bringing his hand to my cheek. "Yes."

I stared at him again. After a minute or so had passed I shook out of my daze. "We need to finish getting ready." I insisted, trying to get the last stubborn drop of blood off of the floor. "We have to go in like, two minutes."

He smirked and bent down to my level, holding his finger out. He pointed it at the blood mark and said firmly, "_Katharizo_."

I gasped as I realized that in Greek that meant 'clean.' "Russel!" I exclaimed. "You're not supposed to use a curse that you haven't properly learned! Who _knows _what will happen now!" I stood up. "I'm going to get Aphrodite."

He sighed. "Laina, I learned that curse ages ago. It's not that hard."

"What?"

He smiled. "I learned it already. Nothing is going to happen."

I grumbled. "This isn't fair. How come you learned curses that I didn't?"

He patted my shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll learn curses soon enough."

We walked together to the front of the stage.

Everyone was pretty surprised to see Russel there, after being nearly positive that he was gone. But they understood quickly that no, he was not here to give us our explanation, but to take us up to Olympus. Aphrodite had us join hands once again and the fireball appeared like usual. Within a minute, we had arrived in New York.

"Wow." I said, nodding my head at the Empire State Building. "Who would've thought? Six hundred floors."

Nico nodded. "I know what you mean."

Aphrodite took us inside and the desk clerk was waiting, as I had expected.

"Helloooo, Miss. A." he said, bowing his head when he saw her. His hair was a shiny brown and had that funny mushroom haircut. His smile was small but his teeth were extra shiny, as if he got them whitened three times a week.

Aphrodite shook her head. "Roy, you know very well that I am a 'Mrs.'"

He smiled that little shiny smile and Trevor pretended to be blown away.

"Yes ma'am, and I am hoping very, very, much that that will change someday." He winked at her as he handed her a key. "Head right on up, dear, and remember, if you ever need a shoulder to cry on," he held out his arm and patted the sleeve of his polo shirt. "Mine is soft and dry cleaned."

Aphrodite just rolled her eyes and led us over to the elevator.

"Roy, eh?" said Jack, with a raised eyebrow."

"Shut up." she growled, walking into the elevator.

We all followed in quickly. It was a moment until I realized that Russel and Addison weren't following us. "Russel! Addison! Debbie!" I exclaimed, staring at them from inside the elevator. "What are you doing?"

Addison smirked. "I'm mortal, and Debbie's a demon remember?" she plopped down on a sofa. "Go on ahead Russel, we'll be fine."

He shook his head, his face white. "I'm sorry, Laina. I'm…" he stuttered. "I'm afraid of, uh, elevators." he scratched his neck, his face turning red from embarrassment.

I smirked. Trying not to laugh at the prospect of a son of Zeus being afraid of elevators I replied, "Oh, are you sure you don't want to come?"

He looked behind himself nervously. "Yeah, I'm sure." He smiled weakly as the doors began to close. "Good luck!"

I gave him one last wave before the doors closed completely.

As soon as we were out of sight of the mortals, Aphrodite stuck the key into the keyhole under all of the numbers. The button for the 600th floor appeared and I mumbled, "Whoa," under my breath.

"Laina, would you like to do the honors?" asked Jack.

I nodded enthusiastically and pressed the button, smiling as it lit up a bright gold. _Play That Funky Music _played softly from the speakers. We waited patiently as the elevator made its way up and up and up, past all of the other floors. My heart started thundering as we got closer to where my parents were. I know there wasn't anything to be afraid of, these were my parents, but for some reason I was scared that they wouldn't like me. That the mortal girl in me, Elaine, would be who I was and not their amazingly powerful daughter Laina. I was worried that they would be disgusted in me, and not want me back. But either way, I felt myself smile as we went up and up and up. I started squirming and Nico turned around to give me look.

"Calm down, girl." said Jack, crossing his arms.

I just bounced around even more and waited for, what seemed like, hours until the doors finally opened. With a deep breath in through my mouth, I stepped onto the pavement.

I was at my birthplace.

Olympus.

It was just like I imagined: Completely and utterly beautiful.

The sky was the brightest blue and was practically cloudless. The grass itself was so green it looked fake, but it was soft at the touch. You'd think that because we were up so high the temperature would be freezing but it was perfect, around seventy five degrees. Nymphs and Satyrs walked about, playing or doing chores for the gods, and many of the minor godlings were humming as they watered plants or practiced their archery. _I'm going to be one of them._ I thought to myself as we walked down the pebbled path. We strolled along, staring at the marble white pillars and statues that looked ever so real. _This will all be part of me_.

We arrived way too soon at the two big front doors that lead into the throne room. I didn't notice the doors quite yet, though, for I was absorbed in something much more beautiful. Glimmering right in front of us was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was a circular pavilion with white pillars along the periphery. The edges of the circle had Roman Numerals on them but I was in too much awe to really think about them. The floor was covered with tiles that were about 1 square inch each. They were all a silvery white until you looked at the ones that the sun was shining on. The tiles there had changed color to form a picture. From far away it showed a sun but when we got up close it looked like a mishmash of different colors.

"Whoa." I said quietly, staring without blinking.

"This is amazing." said Nico his voice sounding almost choked

Argus was speechless.

"Yeah, it's nice isn't it?" said Aphrodite walking on top of it as if it were nothing. "Now let's get going, I want to get some nectar from inside." She continued walking, each of us flinching as her high heeled shoes made clomping noises on the floor. "Come on!" she insisted.

We followed her carefully, each of us praying that we didn't break it. Annabeth sure had done a great job with Olympus. I remembered her talking about a temple like this in the Demigod Files. Now it seems that she had put her dream to action.

Nico walked over to me. "That was a calendar." he said quietly.

I looked at him. "What?"

He stared at me, his eyes looking surprised but scared at the same time. "The picture." he said, "It was a calendar."

I didn't see his urgency and to be honest, I really didn't care much about what date it was. "And this is important, how?" I asked holding my hands out.

He looked straight at me and for a second I saw worry in his face. "Laina, it's the summer solstice." he breathed finally.

_**Nico's POV**_

She took one look at my expression and laughed.

That's right, just laughed straight out at Nico and his dumb worries. Just snorted her face off at my cares and concerns.

I crossed my arms and glared. "Why are you laughing?"

She sighed. "Nico, dear, for a second I thought you forgot to lock the gate to Tartarus or something. Really, don't scare me like that."

I growled. Why didn't she see it? Something weird and dangerous always happens on a solstice. Percy and the lightening bolt was only one example. They are the weirdest days in the year and the fact that Laina's rebirth, or whatever, just to happened to fall on one, really gave me the jitters. Something was going to happen, I didn't know what it was, but history would definitely be made today. And likely not the history of the first Romeo and Juliet play to ever end in the chicken dance. I didn't even try to explain this to Laina, though. She wouldn't believe me. But I would keep on the lookout. No way was I going to let one of us die, not after all we'd been through together. I decided to just let it drop, but no way, absolutely no way, was I going to forget about it. I followed cautiously behind everyone else over the white tiles and past the huge doors that lead to the throne room.

A quick thing about Olympus.

It can be huge, it can be pretty, it can be designed by Annabeth Chase, but no part of it could ever, in a million years, compare to the throne room. It was grand, it was pretty, it was probably made up of the most valuable materials in the world. I mean, I saw gold and silver right off the bat. Looming in front of us was a huge ring of twelve chairs. Each of them somehow grandly personalized. Every one of the gods was in the room, from Apollo to Hades to Lord Zeus sitting in the very middle. My dad was complaining grumpily to Lord Zeus about his boring black spinney chair (he still hadn't gotten over that). Each of the other gods had taken a seat in a magnificent throne, smiling as we walked in.

Oh yeah, in case I forgot to mention, they were all about twenty feet tall.

Now, I had been in the presence of gods before so I knew the powerful aura they gave off, but with all of them together like this, I almost felt dizzy. I could tell Laina was feeling the same way because she slowed her pace down noticeably as we approached. Jack gave her a nudge.

"Umm, parents?" she said weakly. I saw her grimace at how dumb it sounded. Zeus didn't seem to notice though and he just motioned her closer.

"Come Laina, it's been some time." He smiled and I examined him. He had the same grey beard that made him look almost wizard-like but his captivating eyes made him look like something different. More violent and unpredictable than the people in Harry Potter.

Laina walked closer to where the gods were and as she did so she grew to the same size as the gods.

It wasn't until I looked down that I realized I had grown too.

"Hi, father Zeus." she said quietly.

He smiled. "We have missed you so much, dear."

Laina blushed. "I've missed you too."

Zeus stood up and walked over to her. They exchanged some sort of a godly hug and when they pulled away Laina looked much more relaxed.

"Now," began Zeus. "Is it true that you still need four of our blessings?"

Laina quickly explained to him what still needed to be done.

"Ahh." he said. "I understand now." He motioned for Demeter to join him in the center of the room. "Sister, please give Laina your blessing first. When you are done Poseidon will give her his and then Hera and I will take our turn. Go right on ahead."

Demeter, instead of turning to Laina, sniffed the air in front of her. "Hold on there, Bro. I smell some sort of a disturbance."

The other gods nodded and mumbled their agreement. Zeus held his head up in the air and sniffed.

"Hmm. I smell a demon of some sort. An Empousa."

The gods nodded and everyone else looked at me.

"Russel said he got all of the bad blood out of me." I said, holding his arms up defensively. "Not that we should believe anything he says anymore."

"Who is this _Russel_?" asked Zeus.

"That doesn't matter." said Aphrodite. "We're wasting time. Why does Nico still have demon blood inside of him? He said he wasn't hungry for humans."

Zeus nodded. "He shouldn't be, the venom was sucked out of him. But, if this Russel boy was a demigod, not a god or another powerful being, then there is likely still some demon residue in Nico's bloodstream." he looked over at me. "Do you feel like eating a human?"

My stomach rumbled and I blinked. My eyesight went hazy for a moment and when it came back it was sharper. Everyone let out a collective gasp as the blood that was on my shirt suddenly turned into sand and fell to the floor. "What the-" I was cut off by my own growling noises. My teeth suddenly grew heavy and I felt my shoulders become more muscular. I whipped my head back and fourth and suddenly, instead of seeing Laina's godly parents, I saw food.

Not good.

"Nico!" Laina exclaimed. But I couldn't listen. My stomach growled and growled. All I could think about was food, food, food. Something to eat, I was freaking starving! I fell to the floor unable to control myself. I probably sounded exactly like Grover, moaning, "Food! Food!" The hunger bit at my insides and I couldn't control myself. I lunged at the first person I saw.

Travis.

I didn't get far though. I was frozen right in my tracks only milliseconds after I heard his scream.

"Oh my gods!" Laina breathed, her voice desperate and tired sounding. "What's going on?"

Zeus stared at me, his hand still outstretched from when he had frozen me. "Whoever this Russel kid is he wasn't powerful enough to suck the venom out of Nico. The weird thing is that I've never even heard of this Russel boy. The only Russel I ever knew is long dead by now."

"That's crazy!" insisted Laina. "He's your-"

Zeus cut him off. "We don't have time to discuss this." he turned to look at Laina. "You need your blessings. We will do what we need to do to get you powerful and then, considering you are probably the only one willing to do it, you can suck the venom out of your friend here." he motioned to me. "Athena, Ares, tie him up. It is creepy to see him frozen like that."

Athena and Ares got up quickly from their thrones and tied me up in magical ropes. Zeus motioned to me and I fell over gasping, still chanting, "Food! Food!"

Demeter, Poseidon, and Hera all gave Laina her blessings and I saw her bracelet light up yellow, turquoise, and white. I was still staring at Travis though and he kept looking back at me, his face fearful. I smiled every time to creep him out. Zeus stepped over to where Laina was standing.

"Alright. I will give you my blessing and then you will work with your friend here."

I growled low to myself.

Zeus stood in front of Laina and held his hand out. He touched her forehead with his two front fingers and closed his eyes just like each of the other gods had. I could see the concentration in his face but nothing happened. Laina opened her eyes.

"Did it work?"

Zeus frowned. "I think so." He scratched his beard in deep thought.

Laina looked down at her charm bracelet. Zeus's charm was not lit up a color but it was likely that his charm was just plain old grey. Still, I hadn't noticed it glimmer like all of the other charms had done. Zeus placed his fingers on her forehead once again but the reaction was the same.

Absolutely nothing.

"I guess it's just different for me." said Zeus shrugging.

Laina nodded and turned to look at me. I bared my teeth. I had no control over myself now. Going two days without food is harder when you're a newborn Empousa.

"Can you chain his fangs down or something?" Laina asked.

I snarled. "Oh, like _that _wouldn't hurt me."

Zeus nodded. "I can glue his mouth shut. He should be able to breath out of his nose."

I howled and fought the ropes but they were magical and just squeezed me tighter the more I fought. Suddenly I felt my teeth stick together. I huffed and squealed, trying to pull my lower jaw away from my upper jaw. Laina walked closer and I felt my fists clench. This was going to hurt and it was going to hurt bad if I couldn't stop it in time. Laina came even closer and I fought even harder, trying to with my might to break free of the ropes. She got within normal grabbing distance of me and I howled and howled. She knelt down by my side.

"It will be alright, Nico." she said. "You'll be human again."

"No!" I yelled mushily through my teeth. "Pain!"

She sighed. "Yeah, it's gonna hurt a little, but everything will be fine."

"No!" I insisted, trying to roll away from her. I was stuck, though and she just leaned down, coming closer and closer to me. She was mere inches away from my neck when the doors opened.

"No!" he gasped, running in. "Stop! Stop right there, it won't work!"

Laina looked up suddenly. It was a long enough chance for me to roll away out of her grasp. I breathed heavily, the curse on my teeth broken. "Don't do that!" I yelled at Laina.

She wasn't paying attention to me though, and was instead staring at the blue eyed Australian, which seemed to be happening too much lately.

"Russel?"

He leaned down, trying to catch his breath. His brow was covered in sweat and he had the beginnings of a stubble on his chin. "I figured it out when they caught up to me." He wheezed, looking close to passing out.

"What are you talking about?" Laina asked, her voice on verge of hysterical.

"There's something that I really need to tell you." he said between gasps. "I-"

With all thoughts on food gone, I interrupted him. I couldn't believe I hadn't figured this out before. It all made such perfect sense. "You stole Zeus's blood!" I roared.

Turning to face me, his face tired and depressed, Russel sighed before muttering a barely audible, "Yes."

_**Laina's POV**_

"Wait, wait, wait." I said holding up my hands. I looked over at Russel. "I thought you were afraid of elevators?"

Everyone in the room let out a collective groan.

"What?" I asked.

Nico snorted but it was in a mean way. "He was _lying,_ Laina. Ever heard of it?"

I scowled. "Well excuse me for being a _little _slow."

"A little?" Jack snorted.

Lillian elbowed him hard in the gut.

"You know," began Hephaestus, leaning forward in his chair. "I recognize this runt." he shoved his finger towards Russel. "Am I the only one who's seen him before?"

The other gods studied Russel intently.

"I recognize him too." said Artemis. Athena nodded in agreement and one by one the others nodded as well. Zeus was staring at the boy with extra curiosity.

"Russel Greene?" he asked quietly.

Russel nodded. "Hey dad." he sighed. "I'm not dead."

Zeus gaped at him. "But… But that can't be possible! If you really were alive then you'd be a few millennia. Unless…"

"Unless what Nico said was true." Russel took a deep breath before starting his story. "It is, Dad."

We all went quiet.

"A long time ago when you were recreating the second Laina," he began, his eyes closed. "I was about twelve years old. I was pampered and loved by everyone on Olympus because I had saved Poseidon's palace from being invaded at only age eleven." he opened his eyes and looked over at Lord Zeus. "Despite that, I was jealous of you, dad. I envied the fact that you had been alive since the start of the earth, and would be until the end of it. When I heard about your plan to recreate Laina," he looked over at me, "My brain hatched a plan. An evil one, but a plan. I was going to steal the cup of Zeus's blood from the table. Then, I was going to drink it so that I had more god blood in me than mortal blood and therefore, I was an immortal." he looked up at his father. "Nobody knew but the fates. They've been after me ever since I became a god. I was safe in Camp Half-Blood but once I stepped past the boundary line I had to constantly be on the run. That's why I wasn't always with Laina and Nico on the quest." His voice choked up a little and he wiped his eyes. "You all remember me because, like I said before, I used to be a hero. When it passed the time that I should've been dead, I was able to tinker with the brains of every god except Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. The other Olympians wouldn't recognize me unless I told them who I was. Only the big three were too powerful for me to trick."

Turning to us he continued. "Another thing you may be wondering why I look like I am growing older rapidly."

"Yeah." I said. "I don't know too many eighth graders with a legit stubble."

He nodded. "That's from my last encounter with the fates. It was the night that you were all asleep in the auditorium. They snuck up on me while I was awake, waiting, of course, for sunrise. They were so unbelievably close. They chased me and chased me over and over again, and they almost caught me. I figured out recently that they got close enough to take a little of my power away, that being the power to made me immortal." he looked down, ashamed of himself. "I didn't know this it at the time, though, and I came back later to suck the blood out of Nico, unaware that I had lost a little power and that I would only postpone the deadline of his transformation, not get rid of it completely."

after taking a deep breath, he turned to me, tears in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Laina. I never should've been so selfish. If I hadn't stolen the blood this wouldn't have been so problematic. You have no idea how much more fun your quest would've been had I not tried to interfere with fate." a few more tears dribbled down his cheeks as he stated miserably, "I'm so sorry."

And then, for the first time in my life, I saw the brave son of Zeus cry.

I sighed. Staring at this boy – demigod – thing, I realized the truth. I didn't have much of a choice but to forgive him. He was so sorry. Everyone has done things they weren't proud of and granted, I can't hold a grudge to save my life. After very little contemplation I finally just said it. "It's alright." I sighed.

Russel shook his head. "No. You don't have to say that." he cried. "I was so bad, Laina, I was evil! You can't forgive me. There was no point for me do what I did. It was all for nothing and I regret every minute of it!"

"But this wasn't all for nothing." said Zeus to Russel. "You have learned a very important lesson." he walked over and rubbed his sobbing son's back. "I believe that now you understand how hard it is to be immortal." He continued quietly. "I think you see the torture in living forever and never being able to join the ones you love in Hades. So, that is going to be your punishment."

Russel looked up. "What?"

Zeus smiled. "Because you have disobeyed me and learned what it's like to be immortal, I am going to give you what you originally wanted:" pausing for effect, he smiled wider. "To be immortal." he laughed. "Now you will fully understand what it's like to watch the people you love die, over and over again." he shook his head. "Oh, I'm such a genius."

Russel blinked. "Umm, okay…"

I laughed and ran over to give Russel a hug.

When we pulled apart Zeus had dropped his smile.

"Alright now, dear." he began. "I only know one way to do this and you are not going to be very happy about it."

I gulped. "Yes, Lord Zeus?"

Zeus smiled when he saw my uncertain expression. "So, let me get this straight. You still need about a cups-worth of my blood into your system so that you can have enough power to drink the remaining venom out of Nico?"

I nodded. "That would be correct."

Zeus rolled the left sleeve of his shirt up to his elbow. With a sigh and a whimper he continued. "Well then. Aphrodite, dear, would you mind grabbing me my knife and one of those cups? We have a little business to take care of…"

**And so it ends…**

**Alright, I know that was not a satisfying ending so naturally, I've got an Epilogue coming up soon. Please, I really need beta suggestions; I'd rather not start from scratch. I don't know who's good and who's not so I'd really appreciate some. Thanks for sticking with me and my excruciatingly long story for so long, you guys!**


	28. Who Would've Thought?

**The Epilogue is over, HURRAY! I'm so glad that I have the draft finished. Now I'm going to start going through it and editing and revising and all the other icky stuff. But, although I will not have a sequel to this story, I will be starting a new one soon, this time it will be a Thalico. I have a preview to that at the end. Read on, I hope you like it!**

**Epilogue**

_**Laina's POV**_

**Who Would've Thought?**

"Come on kids, my goodness, you're going to be late!" called Mrs. Di Angelo from the kitchen.

I giggled as I shoved the rest of my stuff into my bag.

"We're coming, we're coming." Nico said tiredly. He smiled at me and rolled his eyes. I could tell he was happy. We walked into the kitchen and I set my bag down with a thud onto the kitchen table.

"We're going to miss you two." said Mrs. Di Angelo, putting down the pot that she was cleaning and looking at both of us. Nico and I exchanged happy looks as his mom turned around again to chastise Hades for leaving the refrigerator door open.

"It's so nice to have her back." he sighed happily.

I laughed. "Yeah, the _real _her."

He nodded in agreement and plopped his backpack down on the kitchen table next to mine.

"Hey, do you guys need any help?" Bianca walked into the room, her arms crossed.

"I think we're good." I said. "But thanks."

She smiled at me before walking over to hug Nico. "I'm gonna miss you little bro."

He chuckled. "I've missed you for four years, Bianca."

She just laughed and ruffled his hair. "When you see him, will you do me a favor and tell your Russel friend I said thanks?"

I snorted. "Bianca I think you've told him at least ten times. I seriously doubt he's forgotten."

She crossed her arms at me. "Now Laina, as a goddess you should know proper etiquette. If someone has given up a ton of their power so that you can live with your family, then they deserve more than a few 'thank you's.'"

I just laughed and gave her a hug goodbye. Even though we had only spent a week together we had bonded pretty quickly. Despite being a daughter of Hades, she was goofy and gentle; I could never see her hurting a flea, though I knew she could fight hard if she wanted to.

In not too long, the rest of the Di Angelo family came in to give us a few goodbyes and wish us luck at Camp Half-Blood for the remainder of the summer.

"Be sure to visit." said Hades with a sly smile. He had been much more tolerable ever since Russel gave Bianca and Mrs. Di Angelo some power.

"Yes!" agreed Mrs. Di Angelo. "Since Bianca and I are stuck in here for eternity we would like some visitors!"

After agreeing to visit, and IM, and occasionally even talk on the phone, we stood together in the center of the family room.

"You ready to go?" he asked me quietly.

"Yupper." I sighed.

He raised an eyebrow at my word choice but didn't say anything. He just grabbed my hand, making me blush profusely, and pulled me into a shadow.

I had my eyes closed the entire time. It occurred to me partway through the cycle that I was supposed to be barking to scare the Hellhounds away. I let out some sort of a bark-like squeak and Nico and I tumbled out of the air.

"What was that?" he asked, laughing.

I opened my eyes. "I forgot to bark to scare the Hellhounds away."

He looked at me for a moment in confusion before he laughed. "Oh right. I forgot about that." he laughed quietly to himself.

I had no idea why.

"Where are we?" I asked looking around. We were in a clump of tropical looking trees and I could smell saltwater coming from somewhere. It was most definitely not the community center where we had planned on meeting everyone.

Nico smiled. "Well, we are here for two reasons. One, being the fact that you scared me to death with that odd sounding bark of yours…"

My face turned red.

"And the other being the fact that I have something I need to know from you."

I brushed off my pants. "Shoot."

He smiled and scratched his neck. "Well, Laina, you're my best friend." he began. "I've known you for a few weeks now and we seem to work really well as a team. My parents, of course, like you a lot so I was just wondering…" his face turned red.

I blinked. "Where are you going with this?"

He laughed awkwardly. "Wow, you can sometimes be really slow."

I crossed my arms. "Hey, I think I've figured out what you want to know and I am going to answer truthfully."

I expected him to roll his eyes but instead he walked over to me and took my hands in his own. "Will you go out with me, Laina?"

I stopped in my racks and stared at him, my jaw dropped.

"What?" he asked. "I thought you knew!"

"I thought you were going to ask me if I thought you were hotter than Russel!"

He gave me one last look of disbelief before cracking up. Between laughs he said, "Wow, Laina, leave it to you to make a sweet situation hilarious!"

I huffed. "I'm serious."

He snorted. "Uh huh."

My phone in my pocket started beeping and I checked it. It was a text message from my friends Brielle, Grace, and Lauren.

_Hey, r u coming?_

_The talent show starts in 5min_

_and ur friends r creeping us out._

_-Grace, Lauren, & Brielle_

I laughed. Mortals were so funny.

"We got to go." I said to Nico. "As much as I love the beach, everyone is waiting"

He nodded. "Yeah, we can't be late." he held his hand out and I took it. "Can we talk later?" he asked.

Blushing, I nodded. "Yeah. Next time I won't ruin it with my _hilarious _comments."

He opened his mouth to speak but apparently decided it wasn't worth it, and just shadow traveled us away.

We arrived only a block or so down from the familiar community center, where everyone was waiting. Everyone, being, Grace, Lauren, Brielle, Addison, Russel, Jack, Debbie, Argus, Lillian, Travis, and Aphrodite. They all looked up as soon as we appeared.

"Great! You guys are here!" said Jack smiling.

"Yeah." said Aphrodite. "What took you so long?" she smiled and winked and I knew she knew.

Nico mumbled something quiet about asking me out and the entire group went berserk.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "She hasn't said yes or no yet!"

"Come on, Elaine!" said Grace. "You guys look perfect for each other."

I shook my head. "I am still deliberating."

They all rolled their eyes and made, "Ugh," noises. After only another moment we began to walk down the block.

Jack slipped back to talk to me.

"So," he said, matching my pace. "You and Death Breath, eh?"

I rolled my eyes. "Jack, I literally _just _said that I was still deciding."

"Yeah," he said, "but I know you'll say yes."

I laughed. "Yeah, but don't tell him that. I want to keep him in torture as long as I can." I smiled. "I love him though."

He nodded. "I can tell. You two are pretty perfect for each other. You're both crazy, he's only a few inches taller than you, which is nice, and his black hair doesn't clash too much with your brown." he nodded to himself. "The skin color works out too. I've always thought olive and faintly tan went well together, you should hold hands often."

"Jack-"

"The eyes work nicely too. Yours are brown, his are dark hazel, they match nicely."

"_Jack_-"

"And his crazy dark clothing style. It looks funny with your light and happy one."

"Jack!"

"No, no, no! Not in a bad way! I meant 'cool' funny! I promise, I-"

"Jack, look up!" I blurted.

His eyes confused, he looked up above his head and nearly fell over. "Whoa!"

I laughed. "No way! This can't be true!"

Jack gaped at the emblem of his godly parent. "Is this some sort of a joke?" he called, swatting at it.

But his hand passed clean through the hot pink heart as it slowly faded back into the air.

I laughed. "You are the absolute _last _person I expected to be related to Aphrodite. The _last_."

"I know!" he said, still in shock.

Everybody turned around at our sudden loud voices.

"What's wrong?" asked Debbie.

Jack just smiled. "Why don't you ask my mom?"

Everyone looked around and Aphrodite beamed.

There was a good bit of yelling after that, various Greek cusses and some very weird sounding Australian words (Blimey!) before people finally got enough control over themselves to continue walking.

"Hey Laina, could you wait for a moment?" asked Russel, slipping back to talk to me just as Jack had done.

I paused and let everyone else get ahead of me. "Yeah?"

He blushed. "Umm, there's a question I need to ask you."

I stared at him. Those words sounded familiar.

"It might sound a little weird to be asking, you know, right now, after all of this, but… erm…"

He _did _know that I was going to go out with Nico. Right? _Right?_

He cleared his throat. "Do you think it would be completely crazy,"

_Oh my gods,_

"Out of the picture,"

_He has to be kidding,_

"Like, mentally insane,"

_Yes, it would be!_

"If I were to ask Addison out on a date?"

I blinked. "What?"

He blushed again, even redder. "You heard me!"

I gaped at him, half smiling. "Umm, no. Go for it, Russel, I'm sure she'll say yes!"

He smiled. "Thanks, Laina, that's all I needed to hear!" With a quick hug he ran inside the building.

"Ha!" I said to myself as I walked through the doors. "Who would've thought?"

As expected, the community center had been repaired quicker than most would think Possible. As said before on the radio, the police barged into the building yesterday morning while we were camping out. When they came back with reinforcements we had left, but they claimed it as their doing for 'scaring away the enemy.' They announced that the bad guys were still in hiding and to keep on the lookout for any mysterious people. This, of course, would arise all sorts of problems all over the country, but oh well.

I walked in to the auditorium, recognizing it, even past all of the decorations and people. I sat down next to Nico just as the lights began to dim.

"Welcome to VCC's annual talent show!" the guy called over the microphone. "Today you will see all sorts of performances including yo-yoing, singing, magic tricks, and many more!"

Russel plopped down next to me, Addison sitting next to him.

"How'd it go?" I whispered.

"She slapped me." he replied.

I stared at his face and sure enough there was a visible red circle smack dab in the middle. "What the heck-"

"Then she kissed me."

My jaw dropped.

"That was my response too." he continued. "Not a good one when you're supposed to be the godly son of Zeus who is surprised by nothing."

I chuckled. "She's weird."

"Are you kidding?" he asked appallingly. "She's mad!" He smiled dreamily. "I love her."

We both giggled, turning back around to watch two six year olds cartwheel across the stage.

The show went by pretty fast. Nico held my hand for all of it except for one act towards the end when he got up to the go to the bathroom. I was talking to Lillian, in between acts when the announcer walked back onstage.

"And now, for the final performance of the night, I present to you, on the piano, Nico Di Angelo!"

My head whipped towards the stage and I nearly fell out of my seat as I saw Nico standing there beside the piano, an embarrassed blush on his face.

"Nico?" I exclaimed.

He looked over at me and smiled as if he had heard me.

"It looks like your new boyfriend is gonna serenade you." said Russel, raising his eyebrows up and down as he elbowed me.

"Shut up and listen." I responded, a smile hopefully not showing at the corners of my lips.

The announcer went backstage again and Nico took his place at the piano. I remembered how good he was yesterday and watched intently to see if I could figure out what song it was.

Without any more hesitation he started to play.

"When I Look to the Sky." I said almost immediately.

"Ohh!" said Russel. "That's the song he played here yesterday, isn't it?"

I nodded and stared at my best friend in wonder as he played the intro beautifully.

To my surprise, he soon started singing, something he hadn't done yesterday, and to my even greater surprise, he wasn't half bad. He sang the words soulfully and sweetly as if he'd written the song himself. I felt my eyes welling up as I listened. He sounded as beautiful as Pat Monahan himself.

"_When I look to the sky,_

_Something tells me you're here with me._

_And you make everything alright._"

My throat choked up in the back. I had heard this song many times before. I had looked up the lyrics to it online and I had read them over and over again. I knew what this song was about and who he was trying to talk to when he sang it.

_And when I feel like I'm lost,_

_Something tells me you're here with me._

_And I can always find my way when you are here_.

He was talking to his mother and Bianca.

"_Whether I am up or down or in or out,_

_Or just plain overhead_

_Instead, it feels like it's impossible to fly._

_But with you I can spread my wings_

_To see me over everything,_

_That life may send me when I'm hoping it won't pass me by_."

I felt the tears finally trickle as he got to that last line. He was basically saying that he knows that he will die eventually but he doesn't care. In fact, he hopes that life won't just let him surpass death.

I wiped my eyes. Somehow I knew that Hades was letting Mrs. Di Angelo and Bianca watch this. My guess was proved when I looked off a few seats down and saw an IM just sitting in an empty chair. People were too absorbed to notice the proud looking father and two crying girls sitting in the same seat. I focused my attention back to Nico who was so absorbed in his work he didn't notice the applauding and whistling from the crowd. Aphrodite fanned her face with her hands while crying, "It's just too beautiful!" Jack had his arm around Debbie and they were both cheering. Even Travis and Lillian had taken enough time out of their flirting to applaud loudly. The song ended all too soon and I got up from my seat. Maneuvering quickly through the chairs and down the isle I made my way out of the auditorium, through the prop hall, and backstage to where I could see Nico full of smiles as he came around to the back of the curtains. I was hugging him before he could even process anything.

"Oof, Laina. My gods."

I buried my face in his shoulder and he patted my back.

"That was so beautiful!" I said between breaths.

He laughed. "It was just a song."

I pulled my head up and glared at him. "That was _not _just a dumb song, Nico Di Angelo. I swear, if I ever hear those words out of your mouth again, I'll punch you!"

His eyes widened. "My, my, aren't we a little threatening."

I just brought my nose to his. "The answer is yes." I said quietly.

A slow smile formed on his lips. "You'll go out with me?"

"No, you're hotter than Russel." I punched his shoulder. "Yes, I'll go out with you."

And that's when I decided to kiss him.

We broke apart and he was smiling. "Wow," he said, "I never thought you could be such a romantic."

I smirked and let him hold my hand. "I'm on the Aphrodite charm." I admitted

"Ohh!" he said laughing. "Now _that _explains it."

I scowled as we walked side by side into the prop hall. "I can be romantic when I'm not on Aphrodite's charm." I insisted.

He laughed. "Oh really?"

"Yes really."

"Prove it."

I stopped in my tracks and stared at him. "Fine. I will." I rolled up my sleeve, pointedly pressed the Apollo charm and turned back to him."

"Oh gods," he said, "I think I just woke up a sleeping dragon."

I smiled my famous evil smile and took a step towards him.

I'm not going to go into any more detail here, but let's just say that sometime in the midst of one more kiss I was able to slip a real thing of black eyeliner into his pocket.

The real kind, I mean. Not the prank kind that runs down your face whenever you sweat.

**Yay! They're together! I hope you didn't find that too weird. I really need beta suggestions. If you had a good beta who helped you, please tell me! Anyways, here is the introduction to my new Thalico story, "Just Another Useless Prince Charming" that I will start writing soon.**

_**Just Another Useless Prince Charming**_

_Introduction_

"Well, now isn't this interesting?"

I whirled around to see her leaning casually against a pine tree on the opposite side of the creek I was drinking from.

Regaining my composure I smiled. "I would say the same thing. Usually in this game you dress like you're going to fight." I motioned to her T-shirt and black skinny jeans. "You too cool for armor?"

Her expression turned angry. "I was in a sticky situation, Death Breath, I had no choice."

"Whoa there, I was just asking." I said, standing up holding my hands up in mock defense. "No need to get snappy." I added, smirking as I saw her annoyance.

She swung her sword in the air a few times, probably trying to scare me. "Quit acting like you're the best fighter there is, Skully. There are people in this world who are better than you, in case you've forgotten."

"I didn't forget," I said, swinging my sword, imitating her perfectly, "In fact, I was just about to remind you that you, in fact, are not of them."

She growled. "The hunters have won every capture the flag game in decades. It's highly unlikely that a lower life form like yourself could possibly change that."

I twirled my sword in between my first two fingers. "Unlikely, but not impossible."

"I said, _highly _unlikely."

"Same difference."

She sighed. "Are we seriously going to argue about who's the better fighter when we're standing four yards apart, holding swords, with an otherwise straight path to the opposite teams' side?"

I laughed. "I was wondering the exact same thing."

She stepped into the creek. "Then, I say, let's get on with it."

"I couldn't agree more." I followed her lead and took a step into the creek. The cool, midsummer, water felt like heaven on my aching feet. I had been walking around for ages, hoping to find some sort of an enemy. She held her sword out at the ready and I matched mine perfectly.

"Alright," I sighed. "On your mark, get set – Hey!"

She stabbed with all her might at my neck and nearly won right then and there. But thank the gods I had the intelligence to jerk to the right. Unfortunately for me, my foot locked itself into a root just in the nick of time, and I crashed into the stream, my head bashing against a rock. Giving no mercy, Thalia sliced at my caught leg, but I stuck my sword out only milliseconds before it hit. I bared my teeth and rolled over, temporarily immersing my head in the water. I emerged on the land, drenched and freezing, the night air way too cold for my liking. Thalia was standing in the creek her hair looking frizzy. It took me a few moments to realize what was happening and it was pure luck that I was able to roll out of the way, just in time, the lightening bolt impaling itself in the ground where I had previously stood, leaving behind a smell, similar to rotten eggs. I pulled myself up, prepared to fight again, but apparently she wasn't quite ready. She took a few deep breaths before smiling.

"Are you going to give up yet?" she asked sleezily.

My clothes had become waterlogged and it felt as if my armor had become fifty pounds heavier. I pushed my soaking hair out of my face and smiled. In between breaths I spoke. "Sorry, Pinecone face, not until you've surrendered."

She snarled. "Well in that case-" She jumped out of the creek and nearly sliced my head off for the second time in one night. I was fast, though, and my sword was _just _in her way. I didn't wait for her to react. I disarmed her and swung my sword at her stomach before she could even process that I was still standing. She summoned a bolt of lightening that, not only blocked my shot, but sent me stumbling backwards into a tree. My back hit the trunk with a crack and I moaned.

"Giving up?" she asked again, breathing a little heavier than last time, but still not as bad as my gasps.

I just growled and summoned five skeleton warriors to do my bidding.

"Seize her!" I demanded, pointing my sword at her.

They clacked their teeth together, and ran after her. She swung her sword and cut off their heads but they just reformed and came after her again. Meanwhile, I was inching along behind her trying to call the least attention to myself. Together, my skeletons and I were luring her into the perfect trap. I smiled and approached her, ready to hear her cries of surrender. But to my disbelief, she summoned a bolt of lightening.

_Darn it! _I thought._ She's going to explode my warriors!_ I grit my teeth and lunged for her.

I was struck before I could get close enough to touch her.

"Ha!" I heard her yell. "No one sneaks up on me!"

I screamed in pain as the electricity shook my bones and forced me to the floor. My head hit the dirt with a sickening crack and the last thing I remember before becoming unconscious was her voice.

"Nico? Goddamn it, he's dead!"


End file.
